On Thursday, Moody’s Analytics, which evaluates risk, performance, and financial modeling, compared the economic promises of President Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Authors Mark Zandi, Brendan LaCerda, and Justin Begley concluded that while a second Biden presidency would see cooling inflation and continued economic growth of 2.1%, a Trump presidency would be an economic disaster.
If the American people elect Trump, they might as well be voting to put the head of the KGB in the Oval Office. It’s obvious that Trump supports Russia’s geopolitical goals over America’s. He is an enemy of the State… something I hope Biden says during the upcoming debate (after explaining why this is true). Biden should essentially put Trump on trial during the debate … since the SCOTUS and Judge Cannon are preventing that from happening before the election. Biden should expose who Trump is and what Trump has done!
If Trump wins, the survival of the republic may come down to how seriously military officers take their oaths to the Constitution rather than to the Commander-in-Chief. 😰
My father, and two uncles fought in WW2. My father already had my three eldest siblings and by the time he was drafted and sent to Europe, the war was ending. He came home unscathed. Sadly, my uncles did not.
They did not die, but each sustained life-altering injuries. One uncle was a German POW. He had a head injury--the details of how he got it was never discussed--but his injury was not treated correctly if at all while in the prison camp. He suffered epileptic seizures the rest of his life, in fact, many years later, one stuck while he was on a ladder causing him to fall. That fall caused him to break his back, and internal organ that also resulted took his life a few days later. This happened one month after he retired. He never should have taken a chance and been on the high ladder, but after all he'd already lived through, I guess that fear had left him.
My other uncle who was my godfather was injured by an explosion which rendered him a paraplegic. His photo was in newspapers as being the grateful recipient of
" a gallon of blood" used to his surgeries. He eventually lost both legs, amputated above the knee. He also used the GI bill to become an accountant, and supported himself and his family by creating his own accounting firm. One of my earliest memories is being about 3 years old. I had memorized the Pledge of Allegiance and recited it for him, at which he rewarded me with a quarter. That was quite a sum back then, as I could take that quarter to the "penny candy" store (younger readers: yep, they were real, and you could choose candies one at a time, a penny each!) and fill a tiny paper bag with enough loot to share with other children.
An epileptic and an amputee. Trump would definitely term them lesser.
I really, truly believe that my father and uncles would be appalled and disgusted at how quickly their children and grandchildren have forgotten what they fought for. But then, how quickly the Trump campaign paints rosy picture of life a mere four years ago, saying it was better. Better?!?! I recall toilet paper shortages and meat-truck lockers, loaded with COVID victims, parked outside the nearby hospitals!!
I thank them all for their service and for the pain they all suffered as a result.
My Dad was a WW2 US Army medic. Four campaigns, four years, four Bronze Stars for valor. He suffered intensely when he returned to the States for the rest of his life, dying at 59 from lung cancer (free cigarettes!). Let us all honor their sacrifices to protect our freedoms and democracy by Voting for Biden 2024.
It is sad and shocking to me when military people support Trump. I wonder what are they thinking. Of course I wonder what any of them are thinking when they support Trump. My father was an army veteran in WWII. Thankfully, he came home, but he never talked about it. On occ. I would pick up a tidbit here and there from others. He was in Normandy and battle of the bulge. I understand he was shot, but apparently it hit his backpack. One time it came out he was afraid to go on airplanes. I was born in 1954. I have some wonderful memories. He was a man of honesty and integrity. I can only imagine all the veterans turning over in their graves. It’s sad to say, but I’m glad my father doesn’t have to witness todays politics.
It is sad, Josie, Sheila, Miselle, Daniel, Ned, very sad. But, there is still much that we can do to honor their sacrifices and save the day for ourselves and those who come after us. We can work like hell to get Democrats elected. Let's do this. We may not be remembered as "the Greatest Generation," but we'll have the satisfaction of knowing that we saved democracy here and around the world.
Yes, a quarter was a lot. My mom would give us each a dime on a hot summer night and we would take a car ride with the windows down to help cool off and go to the general store that had a penny candy counter. My brother loved jaw breakers and hot balls and I liked the soft caramel swirls or licorice wheels. Nice memories. Remember candy necklaces and wax lips?
Yes, I do! My favorite was the dark purple grape gumballs. I also recall the paper strips with the candy dots on them. There were also the "flying saucers" which, as Catholic children, we played "Communion" with--we'd peel the halves of the saucers apart, eat the tiny spheres inside and use the saucer to place on each other's tongue. I also remember the debate as to whether to invest an entire nickel to buy a Hershey's chocolate bar.
If you are on Facebook, please go to military and history sites and say the magic words, "not suckers or losers,"
4 million people on Facebook are veterans or active duty members. 12.5 million people on Facebook are family members of a veteran or an active duty member. 242 million people on Facebook are friends with one or more veterans or active duty members.
FB is so f'in tedious. After being hacked and having to close my credit card, and also finding some of my posts disappearing, I wrote to my "FB Friends" and said I was closing down my account. I left remaining some family and very few friends and cured an addiction to using F.
Not like last time. I'm in a veterans' discussion group. Trump is obviously not credible about "suckers or losers" and about keeping top secret documents
The thrill is gone. They can lose any government pension they might have if convicted of insurrection.
Thank you Daniel. Why is it that Navy veterans are such MAGAnazis? My father-in-law, my neighbor and one of my best friends all served in the Navy and worship the ground Convicted Felon Donald Trump walks on.
Hi - as a Vietnam-era vet Navy vet I may be the exception to your rule on Navy vets supporting Trump. After extensive reading on authoritarians and Hitler in particular, I can see clearly what Trump is and what he will do to this country if reelected. My husband is disabled and reliant on the VA for care and medications. If Trump comes back into office and allows his lackeys to dismantle the VA my husband will have difficulty finding the care he needs at a cost we can afford. I live in terror of a Trump reelection but I feel that there are many Americans who won't rest until they have the authoritarian they deserve in office. Once Trump's draconian rule reaches into their pocketbooks and lives they'll most likely want Trump out of their lives but it will be too late.
The Republicans seem to vote against the best interest of Veterans every chance they get, but so many veterans love him.
I don't get it either. My dad was in the Navy in WWII but he was a lifelong Democrat since his father was in the Carpenter's union and the Democrats supported unions.
He energizes men who are feeling loss of respect as men and warriors. The energy coming from women has provoked fear and feelings of disrespect. Men were the leaders for centuries.. and now they're having to create space for women. Not being a first hand witness, I can't say exactly what's coming from the women. Certainly, many have stepped into positions and are often ranked higher than before. These particular men are feeling emasculated.. that their circle of influnence and power has been diminished. Am imagining how the Donald would respond in pubilc to a savvy, strong woman running against him. He is, in fact, emblematic of the shift. He pays for sex! For me that shows weakness.
Personally, I hope Biden needles El Jefe Shitforbrains into having his massive fatal myocardial infarction on national TV during the debate, proving his Lifelong Loserness forever.
I've had the same fantasy but then I wonder if it is one of those wishes that I should be careful of. If democracy want to drive a stake into the heart of the MAGA oligarchy fantasy it needs to win overwhelmingly at the voting booth. A muted Trump will be replaced by one of syncophants that are licking their lips and hoping that what you wish for will actually happen.
Agree. It's the 'Ten year Memory Lesson - 101'..e.g: you wipe out the HMFICC (their leader), then who you gonna deal with.. Jabber-Jordan? Better to have that total POS (nin-com-poop) #45 on stage, he's the lead (Pb) balloon, leading the (R)ss-hole Party into the abyss. This debate will not be the time to refute any of #45's baloney, but it will be time to control the narrative and cite changes (fact) that are visible, not libtard rhetoric. And, this moment will also offer the chance to throw a few bones to the corporate world which has benefitted financially under this administration, bringing better wages (long overdue) often construed to be inflation, improving our standard of living. I can't wait to watch #45 as his rhinoceros-mouth overloads his hummingbird (R)ss.
I watched that yesterday I think. He is absolutely great! Between this site here, Civil Discourse, Beau, politics Girl, Jon Stewart, and John Oliver, I avoid having to look at or listen to the Orange Menace most of the time.
TC, for years, first task in the morning was to check to see if he died. I seriously think he must have sold his soul to the devil, as I can't see what keeps him alive. Overweight, avoider of exercise, overconsumer of junk food and Type A personality.
Oh, but didn't you see the excerpt from his speech over the weekend where he talked about all the wounds over his body? That if he took his shirt off you would see them, oh & his beautiful body, too? Like Heather said, even FOX cut away!!!!
My actual wish is for him to have a massive stroke that leaves him conscious & aware but drooling & unable to speak, be stuck in a wheelchair with a diaper. Hey, great new business opportunities, items to sell: gold wheelchairs & trump diapers!
I still feel a twinge of guilt when I make that wish. It really is cruel & I try not to be a mean, hateful person but as with others, he brings out the worst in just about everyone!
I've had the same fantasy. I think it would be much worse for him than dying. Sometimes I feel guilty, but mostly I don't. I'm sad that such a person exists. I'm even sadder that he has such a following. I'm not sure what his sycophants have planned if he loses it completely, mentally or physically. THAT scares me. Lets work on not finding out.
No offense, but such a comment on this open forum seems a little far right to me. I've always felt that Trump was the only opponent Biden could beat as he does such a good job at self-destruction.
I've always felt that that Biden's support is due to the recognition that he's the best choice for accomplishing the essential task of defeating Trump.
You're right, there is no Biden-Trump comparison, but that's not the comparison I was making. I'm saying that, in 2024, there is no better Democrat candidate than Biden.
President Biden, “Oh Gawd, what’s that smell? June surprise, I think Donald just crapped his pants!” … just like back at the NY Courthouse. The longer the debate, the more likely incontinence could for the first time, decide a presidential race. Adderal, diet cokes, old age don’t mix well.
Steve, While I agree that Biden, so to speak, “should…put Trump on trial,” I would add, not by name calling, wherein Biden merely would discredit himself, but by logically and methodically exposing the deceptions and distortions espoused daily by Trump while also enumerating both his own accomplishments and his plans, moving forward, to further advance them.
Biden should by all means project the adult in the room. Compared to Trump, that should be easy, but some well chosen words might highlight the difference.
J L, Expanding on my original comment, I believe Biden has an opportunity to appear quite strong if he exploits every opening to put Trump, so to speak, on a witness stand, calling out when answers contradict the facts and deriding Trump for campaign rhetoric that doesn’t square with facts.
This past weekend at debate prep, former White House Counsel Robert Bauer answered questions in a mock debate the way he understood Trump would. I truly hope this afforded Biden practice in disallowing Trump’s deceptions and distortions to go unanswered.
Bauer, putting himself in a toxic swamp for the cause... good man.. he just did an interview on Morning Joe, talking over his book Unravelled, and of course his prep work with Biden. Not the first time, I gather.
Frank, I understand this was not Bauer’s first rodeo. I might add, in my view, the election, largely, could land on how effectively Biden manages the hate, the division, and the fear that Trump feasts on, while showing the country he (Biden) can work on legitimate issues and grievances.
I agree with your statement. I believe in Biden’s ability to understand and manage a bully. On the other hand, as someone said, it’s hard to play chess against an opponent whose tactic is to eat the pieces and try to stab you in the eye with the corner of the chessboard.
There's an indeterminate amount of control either candidate has in my mind. But we always expect the Dems to ride a more civil, higher moral plane than the GOP, from which we routinely expect "dirty tricks"... that well precedes even Nixon.
Barbara: I hear and agree with you, but I also think that contrary to Michelle Obama's words, you don't go to a gun duel with a knife. So many of us want to hit tfg upside the head (minimally) and get him off the stage, but Biden HAS to respond with the same energy albeit not destructively. A huge feat, but he has excellent people on his team.
Barbara Jo, Robert Reich titled his last substack piece "Why I'm Scared Sh!tless About Thursday" -- not because Trump is incoherent, but because Trump will portray himself as "strong" and Biden will appear weak. He recalled the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, which Kennedy won* because he was handsome, younger, appeared in good health and looked directly into the camera. Nixon, on the other hand, provided better responses but looked sweaty and turned away from the viewers. He also describes a recent conversation he had with a young conservative who said the US needs an odious thug to counter the other odious thugs in the world, and that someone "needs to take control", letting the cat out of the bag.
Based on what I've been reading about how each both candidates are prepping for the debate, never mind CF45's inability to convey a meaningful, informed answer to any policy questions, Biden should come out the winner. Interesting though that Jackson says Biden is the one who should be taking a drug test.
*I've heard it said that, to a radio audience Nixon won the debate, but Kennedy took the TV audience.
I agree. Since Trump likes to either assign rude nicknames at worst, and mispronounce names at best, Biden could call him Donald Dump, which reportedly would be accurate. But that would be going down to the 3rd grade mentality.
He could mispronounce "Trump" as "Tump" and even excuse it as his stuttering, but the MAGA wouldl howl and point to it as senility.
I am so sick of this all. I foolishly thought that when Biden won, the orange menace would retreat to Mar a Lago where he could consider himself king.
Miselle, While I imagine we’re all sick of this nonsense, we also know that if Biden were to attack Trump’s character or intellect rather than logically refuting Trump’s remarks, Biden would be viewed as disgracing himself.
Bern, I believe I would prefer a most dignified take-down of Trump, while also both amplifying his (Biden’s) meritorious accomplishments and advancing his plans moving forward.
Jeri, I believe more is involved than merely quoting Trump. Biden needs to be so well prepped that he extemporaneously can call out Trump’s answers to questions that don’t square with facts.
Barbara Jo, I wonder if SCOTUS will issue its opinion regarding presidential immunity on Wednesday (although I find it doubtful they would -- for various political reasons.) It would certainly add some spice to the debate on Thursday.
Doug, Because the Court already succeeded in delaying a trial until after the election, that dismal fact, in my view, is the only fact that matters, and it matters greatly.
Barbara Jo -- speaking on MSNBC last night, Neal Katyal said he believes that SCOTUS will issue the balance of its decisions between Wed -Fri of this week, but that Roberts would be unlikely to release immunity decision before the debate -& so likely to be the last one before they cower for the summer.
I agree -- a dismal fact, indeed. I'd even add "shameful".
I’m confident Biden will mop the floor with Trump in the Debate. I’m looking forward to wearing my Biden/Harris shirt grocery shopping for debate snacks. 🛒👕🍿
Jeri, I wear mine in Florida — on 51 grocery Runs so far — with Zero negative comments. And believe me, I was afraid it would put a bullseye on my back here, too.
I choose grocery stores because they are well lit and populated. It's also advantageous that people want to get in and out. No one is looking to pick a fight in the produce section. Your fear is justified. But my experience has renewed my faith in humanity.
I still wear my "Make Racism Wrong Again" and my "Science Doesn't Care What You Think" tees. No negative comments. and some positive ones. A few less threats would be nice.
Same in Oklahoma. I am now a member of the Lincoln County Democrats … attended a great picnic where I met Madison Horn (candidate for Congress with an awesome cybersecurity background). But no one wears political t-shirts or has campaign posters in their windows. No car bumper stickers either.
Very different from previous elections. I did see one bumper sticker, "Maga Republican." I was mortified that somebody was that proud of stupidity. Not another one though.
I moved to FL from Los Angeles so my daughter could grow up knowing her grandparents. In 2018, DeSantis only won the governorship by .4%. Florida is a lot more purple than it seems and I'm doing all I can to turn it blue.
I am in the same boat in MA too. I am ready to move and can't afford to. At least in MA we have a teeny feeling of safety, though if tffg wins all bets are off everywhere.
It would be nice if the moderator would introduce Convicted Felon Donald Trump that way. But I'm sure Biden will get in his digs on CFDT's legal status.
Last week in Chicago an Illinois state Senator became a convicted felon. I'm sure Biden set her up. /S
In an interview by Bill Kristol, Anne Applebaum put it this way, “The Kremlin views Trump like a Gorbachev, someone who can crash an entire system/government.”
This makes total sense. It’s Putin’s and all of Russia’s biggest insecurity of all. The loss of their empire that was the USSR. More than anything, they want us in America to feel the shock, shame, embarrassment of losing everything.
“It doesn’t matter that Americans don’t care about Russia, when it turns out, Russia really does care about America.” Russia wants us to fail, and has been working in that direction for decades.
So eager for new markets, so many looked the other way. USSR needed a Marshall Plan, not Goldman Sachs/Wall Street, the rule of law not lawless corruption, institutions not cronyism.
You note, Steve, Biden should "put Trump on trial during the debate ... since the SCOTUS and Judge Cannon are preventing that from happening before the election."
The Trump threat comes mainly due to SCOTUS and Judge Cannon? No larger canvas?
It would appear that you misunderstood my comment. I named what is preventing Trump from being tried before the election. That is not the same thing as what constitutes the overall threat to democracy. I hope this helps.
"I named 'what is preventing Trump from being tired before the election'"?
Yes, Steve, you've got the two main actors, but you left out ALEC, the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation, the glacial slowness of Merrick Garland, U.S. Senate Republicans who (twice) voted against impeachment convictions, U.S. House Republicans who followed Speaker Howdy Doody in killing the bipartisan border bill, other high-ranking Republicans who trooped to the Manhattan trial decked out in clown show identical Trump costumes, the 1,400 indicted attackers of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, Fox News, and millions more in their regalia guffawing for the end of American democracy.
Or do you prefer causality simple, as if it behooves us to isolate but two bad actors?
Thank you for sharing your perspective. For the record, I’m not here to debate your perspective versus mine. You’re entitled to have yours and I’m entitled to have mine. That’s a wonderful thing about the America we currently live in. And I hope it continues to be true about the America of 2025 and beyond. Have a good night.
Yes. And, that incredibly long 'one or two seconds' of silence (by Biden) following some buffoonish utterance by #45 is an absolute killer. Silence, it's so loud! What a tool.
TFG doesn’t even try period ..his whole approach is delay, diversion, and dumpster fires . “Going to be the best_ _ _ _ “ ; “ _ _ _ _ in two weeks you’re going to see”; “_ _ _ _trust me” . The repetition of staying the hype , double down delivery, and empty promises…OMG! Fill in the blanks folks is the grift , after grift after grift. But he appeals to the greed bunch, the anarchists, the wanna be dictators, and despots in power having used the same playbook after playbook of autocratic repressive regimes.
What amazed me really was how many he WOKE up which subsequently crawled out from under their racist rocks. Sadly depicting the ever present persistent problem politely protected since the civil war.
Heather has so eloquently pointed out (in Letters, her books, as well as the commentaries by you folks -other materials pertinent ) tactics repeated (not only in our short history) of ‘been there and done that’ tendency of mankind , the worst of which is divide and conquer and it’s obsequious success rates.
And yet..fall for it 70 million(?) DID! Along with country upon country of failed states, immigration rampant bursting the seams of neighboring innocents……ALL THE WHILE IGNORING the patience of PEACE , PERSEVERANCE, and and the poverty of the world reduced by 50% …the lessers of mankind lifted.
We’ve got to bring those responsible for crimes against humanity to accountability.
Patricia: I am awed by Rachel Maddow's podcast, Ultra, where she is talking about similar fascist movements in the US and Europe BEFORE, as in 1944. The pendulum swings to embolden those you mention, and human nature of those who are damaged and insecure to seek a so-called "strong man." Of course, tfg's strength is totally fake but said people naively buy into the braggadocio. It is up to us and all other decent people now...
Agreed, great points. I loved Maddox’s Ultra -if you haven’t heard it I recommend -was a huge history lesson, well done, as has been LFAA.
Never has a Felon run for President …but established law they can’t vote..what such grande lessons- how loose the loopholes NOW appear… question all the standard principles all the way back as to what people thought 100+ years ago .
Well ….it’s time to define ourselves again..what we stand for..accountability ,equality, freedom, peace, principles, trust by truth.
Biden’s an excellent mentor , done an amazing job, mending, uniting, strengthening….and all the while a CLASS ACT!
Why are you still lying about Trump and Putin? I guess the news that the Clinton camp cooked up the whole Trump Putin connection to take heat off of her for the email scandal.
Don't believe me? You might asked James Brennan, Obama's CIA director. He briefed Biden and Obama about the Clinton plot in the summer of 2016.
Steve, I hate to remind you that there is NOTHING that would shake tRumps supporters. Anyone on the fence for this election has been brainwashed into seeing Biden as an old, doddering, demented man who they can't see "have a beer with". If policies, facts, and accomplishments mattered this election would not be close.
But before we get every democrat and apathetic voters to vote, if I may suggest, it is essential that we all help hundreds of thousands of college students in 11 critically important senate election states, and in 38 "truly competitive" Congressional Districts (CDs), to register and then turn out! Carefully resourcing our contributions to those candidates who sre really "on the margin" is also essential. Please go to www.TurnUp.US which is run by brilliant Harvard students who are focused ONLY on the "truly competitive" races in order to support abortion rights, gun safety, and to fight climate change! Your donations are tax deductible as this is a Charitable C3 and please contribute generously! Thank you; TurnUp is the very best voter registration and turnout organization in the country!
On Saturday in Northeast Harbor, ME close to Leonard Leo's ill begotten homes, there was a meeting to discuss Project 2025. I attended the meeting with around 100 other people.
Project 2025 was 3 years in the making financed by the Koch Bros. Foundation for $22+ million. It is an 857 page document that can be downloaded and searched. The document is a collaborative effort of fifty plus far right groups including the white Christian Nationalists. The speaker was pretty knowledgeable but it is impossible for one person to absorb the nuances of the plan. Plus, there are many cracks that may have intentionally been left blank. For instance, the section on reforming the Department of Justice to prevent raids like the Mar-a-Lago documents raid, somehow fails to talk about victims or their rights. With over 66000 rapes that have resulted in pregnancies in the last 2 years in the states that have outlawed abortion, not a word about prosecuting the rapists or the sexual predators. It does speak to violent crime briefly, but a large percentage of MAGAs don't believe rape and incest should be prosecuted.
As I stood up to leave the gentleman next to me said, "We are so fucked." I couldn't argue with him.
If CFDT is elected, within 180 days you will not recognize a single Federal agency and the EPA will be dismantled.
Yes-they have not just a vision for America but detailed plans to implement it. We’ll show them though that all the money in the world won’t buy them a fascist nation.
Thanks for the heads up on turnup.usa. I hope they'll succeed. Here in TX, I listen to young MAGA followers spout their nonsense, but I relax because most of them have never voted.
I’m beginning to feel real fear and anxiety about how the results of this election - the idea that there is a hard plan to overturn the results; and I feel a sense of hope that we are so close to ridding ourselves of this pest once and for all. My greatest hope is that Dems win more down-ballot races because of record turnout in states w women’s healthcare on ballot initiatives.
Evangelical Christians "supposedly" do not allow pre-marital sex. Contraceptives are key to preventing the necessity of abortions.
I doubt that any of the younger generations can imagine how secretive sexual activity was during the baby boomer years. I can't imagine they are going to go back to waiting until marriage. To all the young people upset about Gaza and desire to somehow "punish" Biden by not voting, or voting for Trump, I like to refer to Project 2025 plan to ban contraceptives.
Wish we could poll all those White Evangelicals holding positions of power about whether they used birth control. Maybe we could Google all of them in House and Senate as to how many children each has. Sounds petty but I do not believe they have practiced what they preach.
I attended an excellent presentation on Project 2025. (ThankYou, Jennifer Flynn Walker, Center for Popular Democracy.) Later, a young activist asserted that 'Democrats are worse than Republicans because Republicans are evil so you cannot expect any better from them, but Democrats have not stopped them.' As an example he said 'Democrats are responsible for the Dobbs decision because they did not pass a Federal law protecting abortion.' An older activist with the Poor Peoples Campaign asserted that 'it doesn't matter who people vote for as long as they vote and it is wrong to be dismissive of the younger person's position because he represents an important demographic.' Neither of these people is ignorant nor apathetic. Yet both are irrational and counterproductive regarding voting in 2024. This example is anecdotal. It conclusively represents only the opinions of these two people. But ...
I vote for likely outcomes over voting for the person. We as individuals and as a people will be living with the consequences of who we pick as our agents long after said person has faded from the spotlight. Not that who that person is is not of importance, but the integrity of the republic is even more so. It would seem that even some Republican-leaning business sorts have been getting that message. Voting for Trump is like hitching a ride with a suicide bomber.
"I vote for likely outcomes over voting for the person."
ThankYou JL Graham.
Exactly.
The messages to 'vote person not party' and 'vote your conscience' are essentially a form of voter suppression equivalent to 'your vote doesn't count.' They put voting as an individual exercise in personal expression above voting as a shared strategy to take power. They turn voting and ethics on their head to drain them of making common cause for the greater good.
Yes!, "voting as a shared strategy to take power" It does come down to that and those words are useful in conversations with people who want neither candidate.
If we are to take "government of the people, by the people, for the people" seriously, the buck ultimately stops with us. We in aggregate are made responsible for the quality and direction of our government, or else the formula breaks down. Forging solidarity while maintain diversity is a slog; but it's doable. The intervention of ginormous sums of money and unaccountable power short-circuits the reconciliatory process, a huge ugly thumb on a scale. Reagan slick-talked the nation into endorsing that short-cut approach, but who gained and who lost along that path? The data is still out there.
We drove by my wife's old house yesterday for the first time in many years. The neighborhood has been noticeably gentrified, but has a far less friendly look. "Sterile" in my wife's words; and remodeled to a uniform, uninteresting style. Elsewhere whole neighborhoods have been bulldozed and replaced by boxy, warehouse like apartments that cost a small fortune to live in. The comforts are all interior. The community can go to hell. It's looks line narcissism writ large, and that's what unalloyed commercialism will do for you.
This apathy towards our politics is exactly what R’s want. All the nonsensical arguments, demagoguery, lies, and obstruction ( failure to debate, failure to bring policy) is a strategy to demoralize, confuse, and exit participation. It’s a form of voter suppression. It’s the tradition in Russia. It is heartbreaking to see how it has manifested in here America where 1/2 the population does not vote.
I have long advocated for mandatory voting. It is the case in Australia. The penalty is only $25 - but it makes a point. And it works.
"Australia has one of the highest voter turnouts in the world. Since voting became compulsory in 1924, over 90 percent of those registered have voted in every federal election. Compulsory voting means every eligible Australian citizen (18 years or older) is required by law to enrol and vote."
What day of the week does Australia vote? Election Day should be a national holiday ( Friday or Monday…no work!) or at the least on a Saturday. Tuesday is a form of voter suppression to working class families. We should change this. When more people vote, Dems win almost everytime. Why Dems haven’t done this in the wake of losing the Suprene Court, losing the Voting Rights Act, continuing gerrymandering, election denial, abusing the courts and laws to delay winners/losers… and on and on.
Time to change the organizational structure. Get tougher, get smarter, out think the converted forces of the radical GOP Libertarian billionaires!
Just like in France as well as other western democracies! Good on ya mate! Sometimes I think George C Marshall did a better job rebuilding Europe from the ashes, than we did just maintaining our own democracy.
No one wants to be bossed, certainly including me, but life withing a society incurs certain duties. I want to maximize responsible (recognition of duty) choices and maintain maximal privacy for that which is justly private. To the degree what we do or don't do impacts others, responsibilities begin. I think there are pros and cons to the Australian model, and my impression is that it has not cured poor choices, but government of the people, by the people, for the people is surely weakened by too many abstentions, and where voting is made easily accessible, it seem like not too much to ask.
An yeah, a holiday and a lot more discussion of choice and outcomes and the dangers of consolidated power; not so much of the goddam horse race.
The big lie that government is the enemy and resistance is futile are strategies for making it true. To the degree we obtain and maintain awareness and agency, life (at least in part) is what you make it. According to Frankel, even, to the degree it was possible, imprisoned in German death camps.
Lin, I have heard several young people, both Italian and from the USA, making similar arguments, and they remind me of the "good" old days of the Vietnam War when it was common to hear such expressions as "bring on the revolution" and "Let's tear the MF down and start over!"etc. The difference now is that similar sentiments are expressed by elected representatives and billionaires and the GOP candidate, all relying on BIG LIE(s) to convnce people that the USA is a hellscape and that Democrats are demonic and other foolishness belied by every reliable information source. So something has really gone off the rails in the way people see the world and then choose to believe what they see or not.
The things that have caused people to believe almost anything so long as it is not verifyably true, surely include the objective failure of all our leaders (Dem and GOP) since LBJ to effectively address the great existential dangers (nuclear war, ever worsening economic inequality and climate change -- in no particular order) when there was still time to disarm, spread the wealth and switch to solar energy before such major undertakings became almost too enormous to contemplate (as they are now).
While all recent GOP presidents have been disastrous choices to a greater or lesser degree, the Democrats Carter, Clinton and Obama can be given credit for having their hearts in the right place most of the time and (probably) actually knowing what needed to be done, even if their political support (as in voters) was never sufficient to reach a tipping point, the moment when once-controversial beliefs become generally accepted. Witness Roe v. Wade described -- until quite recently -- as "settled law" even by right wing SCOTUS selectees.
This general lack of credibility attributed to all politicians by such a large part of the potential US electorate has no doubt been exacerbated by the astounding changes in information technology coupled with Americans' sense of superiority with respect to the rest of the world, informed by a general ignorance both of history and what the world out there is really like. This detachment from any reality but our own renders many of us incapable of distinguishing fact from fiction.
So Trump describes a non-existent "American Carnage" about which -- if it did exist -- he would not care at all due to his manifest Narcissism, but his followers cheer him on rather than laughing him off the stage.
Conclusion? No one knows who will win the next election, nor do we know what sort of weird shit may go down between now and November or whether there will still be any of us left alive, except perhaps in deep caves (Dr. Strangelove's dream). But there is at least an even chance that there will be a blue wave. I believe that irrationally, but I do believe it, being of our times, so to speak.
The pandemic was a form of carnage. Look how trump and his administration handled that. Thousands of people died needlessly because of the greed and malevolence of and trump wannabe, Jared Kushner.
Many years ago, I read that voting for a Republican candidate for president was tantamount to voting for a recession. Recessions hurt ordinary people, not the morbidly rich. Their wealth cushions them. Plus the wealthy benefit from recessions.
Trump is not an actual businessman; he just played one on "The Apprentice."
Of the 1.3 million deaths, Almost 4,000 doctors and nurses died from work exposure before they could get vaccinated. Thats almost twice 911. Look at the differences in the responses. Let that settle in folks.
The big problem with "Let's tear the MF down and start over!"etc. is that we (and history) exist in long process of advancing space-time where what is built rests upon what came before, even the American Revolution.
That said, nothing prevents substantially rethinking how we do things, and reevaluating how well our current choices are actually working. I believe a lot more of that is advisable these days. The thing is we all get a share of leadership, and our salient leaders "grass roots" or elected serve democracy when they present a focus that we can aggregate around or reject. Successful social movements direct our attention to something that matters, and that needs a strategy, persistence, and discipline. Poorly focused tantrums just serve the interests of tyrants.
I have not relocated the quote, but AOC recently said that while she has disagreements with Biden he has her vote. I'm majorly paraphrasing here, but it is better to live to fight another day than let ruination ensue.
Similar to current Russians cheerleading a 2nd Trump administration. “He’s the American equivalent of Gorbevchev, the guy who will crash the whole system.” This is not the equivalent of reform. It’s some bat shit crazy threat to our national security, economy, and democracy. How R voters don’t see it is really something extraordinary. But 1920-1938 Germany gives us clues, and how to guard against it.
Good morning Lin- Was it the one in Northeast Harbor? Thank you for posting her name and organization. I didn't catch her name or information.
I would just add, that Ms. Walker said that she would be happy to moderate any meeting on Project 2025 for 15 or more people. She is out of NYC and traveled to ME, so don't count her out if you think you are too remote for her to come.
"A public education and mobilization campaign to counter Project 2025, the conservative movement’s blueprint attack on our democracy. January 6 was just their rehearsal."
Fist bump, Bambi sprint Josh Hawley is the poster boy for GOP insurrection - by procedural *and * physical violence.
Wow, wow, wow, another night Professor, with facts that hit it right out of the ballpark! No matter how divided our country appears, no matter how ridiculous some may sound, I truly must believe our Republic will stand and yes, FACTS MATTER!
You are so appreciated! YOU will be in our history books, our history in YOUR books, when we are long gone. America stands tall! TY!
Sharon, While I, too, so admire Heather’s methodical documentation both of the facts and the deceptions perpetrated by MAGA on the public, I also recognize to affect change Democratic leadership now must package this record and make it readily accessible, especially for those who doubt that Democrats are committed jointly to tackling legitimate issues and grievances.
Tens of millions who voted Trump in 2020 doubt that Dem commitment, Barbara Jo.
Look at the scores of comments in response to Steve Brant's originating comment here focusing on simplifying the problem.
How many showed their human dimension by reference to any of our humanities?
Zero.
A few showed human dimension by personal anecdote. Yes. Good for them. But American schools long ago fell to the post-1971-far-right-foundation Powell memo attack. First casualty of this sustained attack killed humanities in U.S. schools: K-12 and "higher." Dems effectively surrendered that human resource: our humanities.
One of the many things that stood out to me in today's newsletter is: "Such positions have more in common with the far left than the traditional Republican economic policies."
I propose a change from the traditional political spectrum implying a horizontal left-right indicator. It should be more like a one-handed clock. Label the upper left-hand quadrant "progressive" (aka more open minded and less skeptical), then label the upper right-hand quadrant "conservative" (aka more skeptical and less open minded), and label the bottom half "the dark side" (aka naive and cynical).
MAGA Republicans got to the dark side by going too far to the right. Too far to the right or too far to the left is interesting from a historical perspective, but the effect is the same.
My point? Lets stop calling MAGA Republicans conservatives, ultra or otherwise. Instead, lets tell it like it is, which is that they've gone to the dark side.
Wisdom is the willingness to constrain one's own ignorance (aka a conservative is at least a little bit open minded, and a progressive is at least a little bit skeptical). Wisdom's small short-term investment has is an enormous positive long-term return.
On the dark side, ignorance is unconstrained (because naivety and cynicism are two sides of the same coin), which has a small short-term advantage and an enormous negative long-term cost. And November 5 is in the long term.
"We’ve braved the belly of the beast; we’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace." —Amanda Gorman.
Facts are drawn from reality. Get to know reality well, and reality tends to be an ally. Ignore or distort reality and you make her a potentially fearsome enemy, as the earth is current warning.
While I suppose that without a reversal of Citizens United the legitimacy of huge financial donations to superpacs like the $50 million contribution made by Tim Mellon will continue unabated, the ability to make such large financial gifts to political campaigns reeks of oligarchy. It seems to be one of the root causes of much that is wrong with politics in America.
If you haven't seen Navalny's documentary, Putin's Palace ((https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_tFSWZXKN0) about the Russian oligarchs, it is worth the almost two hours of your time. The details may be confusing, but the totality of the corruption is mind-boggling. We don't want it to happen here.
Foreigner here: why is all this donated money so important? Why does it matter that the better candidate now has less Super PAC (whatever that means) than the abhorrent one?
In the US, over 90% of elections are won by who spends the most money. Money is speech. Corporations are people. We know how dumb and dangerous it is, yet we have been unable to fix it.
The short answer is that it takes money to effectively spread a message using advertising and voter engagement. The candidate who has the most money on their side will be able to influence more people. PAC (Political Action Committee) money is unlimited and more anonymous and therefore can reach more people with less scrutiny.
Thanks. OK, I get the principle, but to my mind it just encourages corruption. More money doesn't mean better candidate, but MAGAts perceive the richer one to be better.
Thank you for bringing this up. It sounds accurate, though I wish it were not. However, now is the time to "play hardball" to secure every possible advantage.
Money buys ads and pays staffers. However, the bulk that Trump pulled in was from three people: one who donated $50M, and two that donated $5M each. (The latter is a couple who each donated that. They are ultraconservative Christians.)
Having an enormous amount of money Anne-Louise, acts as an amplifier while making your points, you can use it for staffing and offices giving you a physical presence with a lot of people, that and it gives you the ability to flood the airwaves and the MSM with your message. Advertising has developed a very sophisticated ability to target almost anybody, that data is for sale, it’s granular, the orange turd used data from cell phones that were carried into his rallies, it told them who you were, where you worked, shopped, worshipped etc. Then came the targeted ads, he had a guy that developed that system for FB, if my memory is correct.
(But I don't like..) Thanks. I'm awfully glad I don't live there. Interesting, the use of personal data from cellphones. Part of his shtick is prowling back and forth, then suddenly pointing as if he's seen someone he knows. And clapping all the time.
Wonder which drugs Ronnie Jackson has supplied Trump? Adderall ? Maybe more! I’ve read that Jackson has a problem with alcohol! Trump’s campaign consists of a pack of lies!
Anthony, a couple of years back I stumbled upon an interview with Noel Casler who worked a number of seasons on Celebrity Apprentice—he states, yes, TFFFG used Adderall as well as other substances. You can read the interview here & then probably need to mentally take a shower to remove the ick-factor: https://www.noelcasler.com/news/full-disclosure-an-interview-with-noel-casler. When I originally read this Greg Olear interview w/ him it wasn’t in this specific format (yellow type on a black background, posted on Casler’s site)…somewhat bothersome to my old eyes! EDIT: Here is a link to Greg Olear’s site (the original I’d read back when)—it’s easier on the eyes IMHO: https://gregolear.substack.com/p/full-disclosure-an-interview-with
A quick Google search shows the Moody Analytics report created all but a ripple of news. Not surprising. Too bad the firm’s analysis didn’t include threats by Trump and his henchmen in Congress: scrap Social Security and the Affordable Care Act.
The MAGAs are so clueless to the fact that Trump would take away their retirement and healthcare.
There's no point in talking to them. Even if they were eating Trump sand every night, it would be the Best, Most Delicious Sand they ever ate. Hail to Trump sand says the MAGA!
MAGA cult members are delusional, Sharon. They’ve had too much Kook-Aid! Not much chance in changing their minds either! So frustrating to hear and read their garbage! In Georgia we have MTG, the most delusional of all and an embarrassment to the state!
Very good comment, Mr. Anthony W. The entire MAGA cult is frustrating to me. I can't even stand to read or listen to their garbage without losing my temper.
Maggot Traitor Greene is a delusional, loud mouthed, arrogant creep. She is the worst person that has ever been a Congressperson. I wonder if she even graduated from Kindergarten? She is not only an embarrassment to our state, but she is by far the dumbest person ever to be a Congressperson!
Listening to her reminds me of listening to interviews from “ professional” wrestling - All BS with no substance! Apparently, her constituents are addicted to her lies and misinformation!
I totally agree! Her and DJT are very much the same. Her and DJT's constituents are addicted to their lies and blatant disinformation. It seems to me they are delusional, and like children that never grew up. They make up delusional conspiracy theories that are so outrageous only their fellow cult members believe them. Examples: Jewish Space Lasers that caused forest fires in California and that all Democrats are pedophiles? Deep State? These people are in serious need of mental health professionals!
And, another Trumper (Jack) won the Republican primary for Congress over Dugan. He got 63% of the district vote. I’m voting for Maura Keller (D) in November! Likely he’ll win and be the Congressman!
I totally agree, Sharon. Even if they were eating TUMP excrement every night. They are so obsessed and deluded, they would gladly eat it and say that disgusting act would be the best food they had ever eaten. There is no point even trying to talk to them. I am appalled at the sheer number of people here in the USA that have totally lost their minds!
U.S. billionaire predators offshored millions of decent, working-class jobs from the late 1970s on (prompted by the Powell memo of 1971).
Those who got abandoned like this felt that coastal elites had no idea of their suffering (including serious obesity, plus Fentanyl and OxyContin addictions). They knew that no schools in the U.S. produced anyone (outside of late night comics) with any awareness anymore of any humanities that had stayed in touch with the people.
The schools were all stuck into addictions to standardized testing only -- no humanities anymore, only numbers, numbers, units, linear thinking, categorical grouping, nothing human anymore about anything.
Thus so many "deplorables" hated coastal types like banker-friendly, stat-full Hillary, instead embraced the orange demagogue (after Bernie, too, had to bow to Hillary).
Trump supporters represent all economic classes. The thing they have most in common is a desire to maintain white supremacy. This is what Trump has really promised them all.
Group think. Conformity. Dictators who want obedient, quiet populations. Clerics who want to control women. Who want gays to go away and for "traditional family life" to reign by slogans and police state fiat.
What's most complicated? The human. Thus humanities need to disappear from schools, replaced by standardized testers for all the numbers, units, linear thinking, abc causality, and categorical packaging abstracted simpletons crave.
I couldn't agree more, Phil. Over the past 5 years i have watched about every documentary about the one and only Adolf Hitler. The similarities are evident to TUMP and their insane Project 2025 disaster, but not exact.
Michael, the last sentence in your comment reminded me of what a member on the Daily KOS site said about 3 years ago, he said he had a friend that was a huge MAGAT person that was receiving Social Security and one day he asked his friend what would he do if TUMP took his Social Security away and he couldn't pay his mortgage? His friend replied, '' i wouldn't care, i would just move into a homeless shelter.'' That is just one example of just how the tiny brain of a MAGAT works. Bad things are OK with them if TUMP does horrible things even to them. Their obsession with that sub-human cretin is beyond belief!
The Moody Analytics report should be in the headlines, in the business/economic news at the very least. As someone on the cusp of retirement, I am extremely concerned (as if I wasn't worried enough already!).
What a comprehensive letter citing all the progress being made for the betterment of our country under the Biden-Harris Administration. It makes no sense to me that news sources throughout the country are not reporting these facts. I’d like to share this letter with the members of my family who do not support President Biden and have twice voted for Trump. They wouldn’t believe it even if they read it. Herein lies the problem.
Puts me in mind of something the late Queen Elizabeth II is reported to have said about the Royal Family's constant public appearances: "If they don't see us, they don't believe us."
So much to respond to in this update...but my most fun thought as I read through tonight's letter is how fun it would be to build a large group of attendees that outnumber the usual audience (not so hard these days, actually) at the tRumpf rallies...this group can just keep chanting "that's not true" over and over and they would be there in numbers that dwarf the MAGAts so they would not be able to be ejected.
That was my impression on reading HCR's letter: He's just making stuff up! And the most outlandish the better. Newest thing: have "illegal immigrants" fight each other to become citizens!
I like it! Probably simpler and better than an idea I've had flitting around, that President Biden spice up his debate with some really outrageous Trump-style lies. ("Oh! did I say that? I must be starting to get old!")
The beauty of your idea is that President Biden would not even have to lie, simply repeating the things DT and other MAGAs have said would be more than enough. I also like the idea of chanting LOCK HIM UP! at MAGA rallies and during the debate:)
BUT, having President Biden repeat T' lies, wouldn't it give the MAGA's opportunity to say "but , see, President Biden said it too", without mention that the President qualified the statement as a lie?
Thank you for this bracing inventory, Heather. It speaks volumes that a descendant of Andrew Mellon, who had his own problems with FDR, sees fit to support the current iteration of populist idiocy that passes for a platform in the GOP. If there is one thing that money can’t buy it is that most uncommon of traits: common sense.
are all textbook examples as to why any attempt at a meaningful form of democracy cannot co-exist with extreme wealth concentration, more so after the Supremely Corrupt Court of the United States elevated political donations to protected speech.
Jamie Raskin, having been accused of being a “damned liberal,” responds: “You’re damned right I’m a liberal; the heart of the word is liberty. And I’m a progressive because the heart of that word is progress. But my favorite thing to call myself these days is a conservative, because I want to conserve the land, the air, the water, the climate system, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
Jamie Raskin is a brilliant, decent and kind mensch. When my day takes a turn JR is one of the pillars of strength I think of. I am so grateful JR is recovering from his bout with cancer.
There is barely a factoid on any topic, whether it be economic, political, environmental or otherwise, on which t has the barest minimum competence to opine. The staggering millions of Americans who continue to adhere to a functionally moronic, detestable, corrupt, unconscionable liar is stunning. Clearly his minions will spin a wild fantasy in praise of his debate performance (which, BTW, I still have doubts will occur), but any sane observer must see President Biden as having taken up a hugely damaged nation and righted the ship.
But - are the staggering millions still basically the same that have been around for the last three years? They are far fewer than the real American voters.
Mark Zandi, head of Moody’s Analytics [eons ago, I was Moody’s executive vice president], has provided, in retrospect, the most professional, detailed ongoing analysis of the American economy during the post-Covid period. For me, his track record is on a par with that of Paul Krugman.
Trump has been spouting off-the-cuff policy statements that are so ridiculous that they could be a comedian’s spiel at Las Vegas. His suggestion that the income tax might be replaced by revenue from higher tariffs shatters the laugh meter, until analysis points out that this would cost the average family another $5,000 annually, while providing an almost free ride for the wealthy.
Seldom does anyone authoritative seek to cost out Trump’s shot gun utterances. Zandi has done this:
UNDER BIDEN, FROM 2025 AND BEYOND, INFLATION WILL DIMINISH AND THE AMERICAN ECONOMY WILL GROW SIGNIFICANTLY. UNDER TRUMP’S PROPOSALS, INFLATION WILL BE AN ONGOING PROBLEM AND THE ECONOMY WILL STRUGGLE.
I look forward to Biden, on June 27th, calmly puncturing Trump’s false-fact bloviations. Like a carnival barker, Trump throws out fearful bull shit to his circus cult. Cool Hand Joe, with the impressive accomplishments of the Biden administration, will give Trump a lesson on what it takes to be a president dedicated to serving the United States of America.
Mar a Lago isn’t the White House—-far, far from it.
Sorry - not sorry - Keith, to slip in on your post with this revelatory admonition from Professor Harold Hill...We Got Trouble Right Here in River City...
Lynell AND Harold Hill was a charlatan (charming rather than our current cult charlatan) who was spreading ‘fear’ about trouble in River City to sell uniforms and music instruments to young kids. Seventy-Six trombones was a marvelous finale of this farce, quite distinct from the January 6th insurrection.
I got to be one of the 76 trombones (actually we were about 20) when we presented "Music Man" my sophomore year. I also have two friends who own and play the coveted (!) double bell euphonium.
What a description - that woman deserves a Freedom Medal - imagine finding one of those sitting on the bed in his underwear. A man of true fake/faith/er, face, fake face. Well, you name it: it's fake.
As usual, you give me a chuckle on a morning when I tried to compare the environmental interrupters of the big golf tournament yesterday to a sports fan who doesn’t get it about poison on greens and the watering thereof. Hung up on bread and circuses, I am plunged into environmental considerations, cheering on the Canadian Canucks (ice hockey belongs to them, not Florida, where it is equally exploitive of resources) for the Stanley Cup for purely environmental and historical reasons.
Then there’s money, the exposed elephant in the room. No one is talking about how much climate change is costing while PROPOSING SOLUTIONS, though I did actually see an add for TRAINS, run efficiently by electricity and trained (union?) workmen.
For the record, Tim Mellon is Biden's age. More importantly, like The Convicted Felon, he is a poster child of A. J. Carothers quote that "He made his money the really old-fashioned way. He inherited it”. Mellon had the wisdom to be born as an heir of Andrew Mellon who was himself an heir to the multi-generational, dynastic banking fortune of Thomas Mellon. Mellon and TFC also epitomize the Barry Switzer quote "Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple."
If the American people elect Trump, they might as well be voting to put the head of the KGB in the Oval Office. It’s obvious that Trump supports Russia’s geopolitical goals over America’s. He is an enemy of the State… something I hope Biden says during the upcoming debate (after explaining why this is true). Biden should essentially put Trump on trial during the debate … since the SCOTUS and Judge Cannon are preventing that from happening before the election. Biden should expose who Trump is and what Trump has done!
If Trump wins, the survival of the republic may come down to how seriously military officers take their oaths to the Constitution rather than to the Commander-in-Chief. 😰
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWE8yo99OjE&t=11s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUBwxpDfLok
Not suckers or losers.
Daniel,
My father, and two uncles fought in WW2. My father already had my three eldest siblings and by the time he was drafted and sent to Europe, the war was ending. He came home unscathed. Sadly, my uncles did not.
They did not die, but each sustained life-altering injuries. One uncle was a German POW. He had a head injury--the details of how he got it was never discussed--but his injury was not treated correctly if at all while in the prison camp. He suffered epileptic seizures the rest of his life, in fact, many years later, one stuck while he was on a ladder causing him to fall. That fall caused him to break his back, and internal organ that also resulted took his life a few days later. This happened one month after he retired. He never should have taken a chance and been on the high ladder, but after all he'd already lived through, I guess that fear had left him.
My other uncle who was my godfather was injured by an explosion which rendered him a paraplegic. His photo was in newspapers as being the grateful recipient of
" a gallon of blood" used to his surgeries. He eventually lost both legs, amputated above the knee. He also used the GI bill to become an accountant, and supported himself and his family by creating his own accounting firm. One of my earliest memories is being about 3 years old. I had memorized the Pledge of Allegiance and recited it for him, at which he rewarded me with a quarter. That was quite a sum back then, as I could take that quarter to the "penny candy" store (younger readers: yep, they were real, and you could choose candies one at a time, a penny each!) and fill a tiny paper bag with enough loot to share with other children.
An epileptic and an amputee. Trump would definitely term them lesser.
I really, truly believe that my father and uncles would be appalled and disgusted at how quickly their children and grandchildren have forgotten what they fought for. But then, how quickly the Trump campaign paints rosy picture of life a mere four years ago, saying it was better. Better?!?! I recall toilet paper shortages and meat-truck lockers, loaded with COVID victims, parked outside the nearby hospitals!!
I thank them all for their service and for the pain they all suffered as a result.
My Dad was a WW2 US Army medic. Four campaigns, four years, four Bronze Stars for valor. He suffered intensely when he returned to the States for the rest of his life, dying at 59 from lung cancer (free cigarettes!). Let us all honor their sacrifices to protect our freedoms and democracy by Voting for Biden 2024.
It is sad and shocking to me when military people support Trump. I wonder what are they thinking. Of course I wonder what any of them are thinking when they support Trump. My father was an army veteran in WWII. Thankfully, he came home, but he never talked about it. On occ. I would pick up a tidbit here and there from others. He was in Normandy and battle of the bulge. I understand he was shot, but apparently it hit his backpack. One time it came out he was afraid to go on airplanes. I was born in 1954. I have some wonderful memories. He was a man of honesty and integrity. I can only imagine all the veterans turning over in their graves. It’s sad to say, but I’m glad my father doesn’t have to witness todays politics.
It is sad, Josie, Sheila, Miselle, Daniel, Ned, very sad. But, there is still much that we can do to honor their sacrifices and save the day for ourselves and those who come after us. We can work like hell to get Democrats elected. Let's do this. We may not be remembered as "the Greatest Generation," but we'll have the satisfaction of knowing that we saved democracy here and around the world.
Yes, a quarter was a lot. My mom would give us each a dime on a hot summer night and we would take a car ride with the windows down to help cool off and go to the general store that had a penny candy counter. My brother loved jaw breakers and hot balls and I liked the soft caramel swirls or licorice wheels. Nice memories. Remember candy necklaces and wax lips?
Yes, I do! My favorite was the dark purple grape gumballs. I also recall the paper strips with the candy dots on them. There were also the "flying saucers" which, as Catholic children, we played "Communion" with--we'd peel the halves of the saucers apart, eat the tiny spheres inside and use the saucer to place on each other's tongue. I also remember the debate as to whether to invest an entire nickel to buy a Hershey's chocolate bar.
I had forgotten the long strips of paper with pastel colored dots! I never heard of the "flying saucers."
There is no more worthy organization than VoteVets.
Hooray! I love those advertisements! Thank you, Daniel, thank you so much.
If you are on Facebook, please go to military and history sites and say the magic words, "not suckers or losers,"
4 million people on Facebook are veterans or active duty members. 12.5 million people on Facebook are family members of a veteran or an active duty member. 242 million people on Facebook are friends with one or more veterans or active duty members.
FB banned me for saying that chump used Goebbels rules for effective propaganda. They need to be aired on tv
FB is so f'in tedious. After being hacked and having to close my credit card, and also finding some of my posts disappearing, I wrote to my "FB Friends" and said I was closing down my account. I left remaining some family and very few friends and cured an addiction to using F.
Notgoing to be a Replican majority military vote this time you think?
Not like last time. I'm in a veterans' discussion group. Trump is obviously not credible about "suckers or losers" and about keeping top secret documents
The thrill is gone. They can lose any government pension they might have if convicted of insurrection.
Great idea, Daniel. I'm gonna do that.
Thank you Daniel. Why is it that Navy veterans are such MAGAnazis? My father-in-law, my neighbor and one of my best friends all served in the Navy and worship the ground Convicted Felon Donald Trump walks on.
Hi - as a Vietnam-era vet Navy vet I may be the exception to your rule on Navy vets supporting Trump. After extensive reading on authoritarians and Hitler in particular, I can see clearly what Trump is and what he will do to this country if reelected. My husband is disabled and reliant on the VA for care and medications. If Trump comes back into office and allows his lackeys to dismantle the VA my husband will have difficulty finding the care he needs at a cost we can afford. I live in terror of a Trump reelection but I feel that there are many Americans who won't rest until they have the authoritarian they deserve in office. Once Trump's draconian rule reaches into their pocketbooks and lives they'll most likely want Trump out of their lives but it will be too late.
The Republicans seem to vote against the best interest of Veterans every chance they get, but so many veterans love him.
I don't get it either. My dad was in the Navy in WWII but he was a lifelong Democrat since his father was in the Carpenter's union and the Democrats supported unions.
You could find people like that in every occupational group, but yes, the USN vets I know are like that too.
Propaganda works, and not just on fools and losers
He energizes men who are feeling loss of respect as men and warriors. The energy coming from women has provoked fear and feelings of disrespect. Men were the leaders for centuries.. and now they're having to create space for women. Not being a first hand witness, I can't say exactly what's coming from the women. Certainly, many have stepped into positions and are often ranked higher than before. These particular men are feeling emasculated.. that their circle of influnence and power has been diminished. Am imagining how the Donald would respond in pubilc to a savvy, strong woman running against him. He is, in fact, emblematic of the shift. He pays for sex! For me that shows weakness.
Thank you, Daniel.
Wish they aired in Texas
Unable to access either of these. Hmmmm??
What a scary thought, Ned. The possibility is real.
Thank you, Christine.
I hope they have a plan
You mean an insurrection?
I would think it would be more like the military leadership refusing to carry out Trump's orders.
That's called an insurrection. Isn't that the leftist dream. Censor speech, control
the economy, and dictate everything.
Personally, I hope Biden needles El Jefe Shitforbrains into having his massive fatal myocardial infarction on national TV during the debate, proving his Lifelong Loserness forever.
I've had the same fantasy but then I wonder if it is one of those wishes that I should be careful of. If democracy want to drive a stake into the heart of the MAGA oligarchy fantasy it needs to win overwhelmingly at the voting booth. A muted Trump will be replaced by one of syncophants that are licking their lips and hoping that what you wish for will actually happen.
Vance and the Dakota gov’s are waiting in the wings for Orange demise.
Heritage Society already has some picked out
Heritage Foundation. Federalist Society. Koch Network. ALEC.
So many, it’s hard to count
Agree. It's the 'Ten year Memory Lesson - 101'..e.g: you wipe out the HMFICC (their leader), then who you gonna deal with.. Jabber-Jordan? Better to have that total POS (nin-com-poop) #45 on stage, he's the lead (Pb) balloon, leading the (R)ss-hole Party into the abyss. This debate will not be the time to refute any of #45's baloney, but it will be time to control the narrative and cite changes (fact) that are visible, not libtard rhetoric. And, this moment will also offer the chance to throw a few bones to the corporate world which has benefitted financially under this administration, bringing better wages (long overdue) often construed to be inflation, improving our standard of living. I can't wait to watch #45 as his rhinoceros-mouth overloads his hummingbird (R)ss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI_9d2tm26Y
I watched that yesterday I think. He is absolutely great! Between this site here, Civil Discourse, Beau, politics Girl, Jon Stewart, and John Oliver, I avoid having to look at or listen to the Orange Menace most of the time.
Interesting!!
I love the (Pb) Balloon. Nicely done!
Only Trump has that special charisma. No Trump? No Trumpism. Game over, at least for the near future.
TC, for years, first task in the morning was to check to see if he died. I seriously think he must have sold his soul to the devil, as I can't see what keeps him alive. Overweight, avoider of exercise, overconsumer of junk food and Type A personality.
No other explanation crosses my mind.
Oh, but didn't you see the excerpt from his speech over the weekend where he talked about all the wounds over his body? That if he took his shirt off you would see them, oh & his beautiful body, too? Like Heather said, even FOX cut away!!!!
My actual wish is for him to have a massive stroke that leaves him conscious & aware but drooling & unable to speak, be stuck in a wheelchair with a diaper. Hey, great new business opportunities, items to sell: gold wheelchairs & trump diapers!
I still feel a twinge of guilt when I make that wish. It really is cruel & I try not to be a mean, hateful person but as with others, he brings out the worst in just about everyone!
I've had the same fantasy. I think it would be much worse for him than dying. Sometimes I feel guilty, but mostly I don't. I'm sad that such a person exists. I'm even sadder that he has such a following. I'm not sure what his sycophants have planned if he loses it completely, mentally or physically. THAT scares me. Lets work on not finding out.
Don't say s*** like that. It drags the whole comment section down.
Have you seen the clips of his rallies where people are wearing giant gold diaper that say "real men wear diapers" on them?!
No! I haven't! Wonder how much they cost?
I saw them on a clip one of the left pundits (probably David Pakman?) showed.
A quick google search didn't find the golden ones, but there is this:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/why-are-trump-supporters-wearing-diapers-to-his-rallies/ar-AA1o5gA5
Re: the wounds. Five. There assuredly are five. His believers will tell you so's you know.
You’re not alone. Check for this every day. Then on to HCR.
Only the good die young...
No offense, but such a comment on this open forum seems a little far right to me. I've always felt that Trump was the only opponent Biden could beat as he does such a good job at self-destruction.
I've always felt that that Biden's support is due to the recognition that he's the best choice for accomplishing the essential task of defeating Trump.
Forget Trump comparisons. Biden has very effectively delivered. Period
You're right, there is no Biden-Trump comparison, but that's not the comparison I was making. I'm saying that, in 2024, there is no better Democrat candidate than Biden.
But who gives him credit.???
Us, and its up to us to amplify it, right? Good Trouble and all
Far right?
I agree with you Jeri. The tRumPutin act is the best way to insure a Democratic triumph. MAGA is in total self-destruct mode.
President Biden, “Oh Gawd, what’s that smell? June surprise, I think Donald just crapped his pants!” … just like back at the NY Courthouse. The longer the debate, the more likely incontinence could for the first time, decide a presidential race. Adderal, diet cokes, old age don’t mix well.
Oh, I might ought to watch
Steve, While I agree that Biden, so to speak, “should…put Trump on trial,” I would add, not by name calling, wherein Biden merely would discredit himself, but by logically and methodically exposing the deceptions and distortions espoused daily by Trump while also enumerating both his own accomplishments and his plans, moving forward, to further advance them.
Biden should by all means project the adult in the room. Compared to Trump, that should be easy, but some well chosen words might highlight the difference.
J L, Expanding on my original comment, I believe Biden has an opportunity to appear quite strong if he exploits every opening to put Trump, so to speak, on a witness stand, calling out when answers contradict the facts and deriding Trump for campaign rhetoric that doesn’t square with facts.
This past weekend at debate prep, former White House Counsel Robert Bauer answered questions in a mock debate the way he understood Trump would. I truly hope this afforded Biden practice in disallowing Trump’s deceptions and distortions to go unanswered.
Bauer, putting himself in a toxic swamp for the cause... good man.. he just did an interview on Morning Joe, talking over his book Unravelled, and of course his prep work with Biden. Not the first time, I gather.
Frank, I understand this was not Bauer’s first rodeo. I might add, in my view, the election, largely, could land on how effectively Biden manages the hate, the division, and the fear that Trump feasts on, while showing the country he (Biden) can work on legitimate issues and grievances.
I agree with your statement. I believe in Biden’s ability to understand and manage a bully. On the other hand, as someone said, it’s hard to play chess against an opponent whose tactic is to eat the pieces and try to stab you in the eye with the corner of the chessboard.
A tad of pressure, Joe does it better
There's an indeterminate amount of control either candidate has in my mind. But we always expect the Dems to ride a more civil, higher moral plane than the GOP, from which we routinely expect "dirty tricks"... that well precedes even Nixon.
Barbara: I hear and agree with you, but I also think that contrary to Michelle Obama's words, you don't go to a gun duel with a knife. So many of us want to hit tfg upside the head (minimally) and get him off the stage, but Biden HAS to respond with the same energy albeit not destructively. A huge feat, but he has excellent people on his team.
And one can hope that the moderators would find ways to rein Trump in when he interrupts and hogs the microphone.
Pat, You might recall mics will be muted unless the candidate is called upon to speak.
And there'll be no studio audience that he can speak to, even without a mic.
Yes, of course, and I don't think Trump could be trusted not to keep blabbering LOUDLY if he felt the need to.
Barbara Jo, Robert Reich titled his last substack piece "Why I'm Scared Sh!tless About Thursday" -- not because Trump is incoherent, but because Trump will portray himself as "strong" and Biden will appear weak. He recalled the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, which Kennedy won* because he was handsome, younger, appeared in good health and looked directly into the camera. Nixon, on the other hand, provided better responses but looked sweaty and turned away from the viewers. He also describes a recent conversation he had with a young conservative who said the US needs an odious thug to counter the other odious thugs in the world, and that someone "needs to take control", letting the cat out of the bag.
Based on what I've been reading about how each both candidates are prepping for the debate, never mind CF45's inability to convey a meaningful, informed answer to any policy questions, Biden should come out the winner. Interesting though that Jackson says Biden is the one who should be taking a drug test.
*I've heard it said that, to a radio audience Nixon won the debate, but Kennedy took the TV audience.
Doug, I both read and commented to Reich’s piece. My comments there and here are my appraisal of how Biden best can appear strong.
Btw, I recall hearing the same about the contrast between the radio audience vs. the TV audience. Of course, that contrast doesn’t apply here.
Time to catch the rat in self-contradictions.
I agree. Since Trump likes to either assign rude nicknames at worst, and mispronounce names at best, Biden could call him Donald Dump, which reportedly would be accurate. But that would be going down to the 3rd grade mentality.
He could mispronounce "Trump" as "Tump" and even excuse it as his stuttering, but the MAGA wouldl howl and point to it as senility.
I am so sick of this all. I foolishly thought that when Biden won, the orange menace would retreat to Mar a Lago where he could consider himself king.
Miselle, While I imagine we’re all sick of this nonsense, we also know that if Biden were to attack Trump’s character or intellect rather than logically refuting Trump’s remarks, Biden would be viewed as disgracing himself.
Maybe, but how cool would it be if he walked onto the stage carrying a giant inflatable shark?
Bern, I believe I would prefer a most dignified take-down of Trump, while also both amplifying his (Biden’s) meritorious accomplishments and advancing his plans moving forward.
Dignity has its place, and Uncle Joe has plenty, enough so he can afford to let his freak flag every once in a while...
Donnie Shitstain is what Jeff Tiedrich calls him. :)
Quote him, shouldn’t be hard.
Jeri, I believe more is involved than merely quoting Trump. Biden needs to be so well prepped that he extemporaneously can call out Trump’s answers to questions that don’t square with facts.
Couldn’t agree more, wish MSM would have that as a goal in their reporting
Jeri, You and I both!
Barbara Jo, I wonder if SCOTUS will issue its opinion regarding presidential immunity on Wednesday (although I find it doubtful they would -- for various political reasons.) It would certainly add some spice to the debate on Thursday.
Doug, Because the Court already succeeded in delaying a trial until after the election, that dismal fact, in my view, is the only fact that matters, and it matters greatly.
Barbara Jo -- speaking on MSNBC last night, Neal Katyal said he believes that SCOTUS will issue the balance of its decisions between Wed -Fri of this week, but that Roberts would be unlikely to release immunity decision before the debate -& so likely to be the last one before they cower for the summer.
I agree -- a dismal fact, indeed. I'd even add "shameful".
I’m confident Biden will mop the floor with Trump in the Debate. I’m looking forward to wearing my Biden/Harris shirt grocery shopping for debate snacks. 🛒👕🍿
DemsMakeLifeBetter.org
BeantownStrong.org
Every paragraph of HCR makes me more proud to wear it.
In Texas that would put a bulls eye on your back. There are very few political symbols worn in public here. It’s already Gestapo country
Jeri, I wear mine in Florida — on 51 grocery Runs so far — with Zero negative comments. And believe me, I was afraid it would put a bullseye on my back here, too.
I choose grocery stores because they are well lit and populated. It's also advantageous that people want to get in and out. No one is looking to pick a fight in the produce section. Your fear is justified. But my experience has renewed my faith in humanity.
I still wear my "Make Racism Wrong Again" and my "Science Doesn't Care What You Think" tees. No negative comments. and some positive ones. A few less threats would be nice.
Same in Oklahoma. I am now a member of the Lincoln County Democrats … attended a great picnic where I met Madison Horn (candidate for Congress with an awesome cybersecurity background). But no one wears political t-shirts or has campaign posters in their windows. No car bumper stickers either.
Very different from previous elections. I did see one bumper sticker, "Maga Republican." I was mortified that somebody was that proud of stupidity. Not another one though.
Why do people remain living in TX and FL kind of states?
I moved to FL from Los Angeles so my daughter could grow up knowing her grandparents. In 2018, DeSantis only won the governorship by .4%. Florida is a lot more purple than it seems and I'm doing all I can to turn it blue.
Options taper off for old people, In 2016, I decided to stay here and fight.
Now I'm without resources to leave. Not everyone can vote with their feet.
There was a time... Magats and the young are either enamored with the shinny objects or numb to the danger..
Understood. This makes me sad.
I am in the same boat in MA too. I am ready to move and can't afford to. At least in MA we have a teeny feeling of safety, though if tffg wins all bets are off everywhere.
Stay strong.
Maine seems like heaven compared with Texas these days. Hasn’t always been so. The evil trio has done their best to destroy what was good about Texas
It would be nice if the moderator would introduce Convicted Felon Donald Trump that way. But I'm sure Biden will get in his digs on CFDT's legal status.
Last week in Chicago an Illinois state Senator became a convicted felon. I'm sure Biden set her up. /S
That classic Shawn…😂😂😂😂
Worse than the head of the kgb.
In an interview by Bill Kristol, Anne Applebaum put it this way, “The Kremlin views Trump like a Gorbachev, someone who can crash an entire system/government.”
This makes total sense. It’s Putin’s and all of Russia’s biggest insecurity of all. The loss of their empire that was the USSR. More than anything, they want us in America to feel the shock, shame, embarrassment of losing everything.
“It doesn’t matter that Americans don’t care about Russia, when it turns out, Russia really does care about America.” Russia wants us to fail, and has been working in that direction for decades.
https://youtu.be/pTSjuTxUe_Y?si=ZUKiBWGbhKn5t6lN
The repubs in Congress in the 90’s screwed any chance for helping Russia during their transition to ???
“Capitalisms is no guarantee of Democracy. “
So eager for new markets, so many looked the other way. USSR needed a Marshall Plan, not Goldman Sachs/Wall Street, the rule of law not lawless corruption, institutions not cronyism.
Capitalism is one of those “trust but verify” entities. Never to be let loose unencumbered
Kinda explains the root cause of America’s problems today.
Indeed it does
You note, Steve, Biden should "put Trump on trial during the debate ... since the SCOTUS and Judge Cannon are preventing that from happening before the election."
The Trump threat comes mainly due to SCOTUS and Judge Cannon? No larger canvas?
It would appear that you misunderstood my comment. I named what is preventing Trump from being tried before the election. That is not the same thing as what constitutes the overall threat to democracy. I hope this helps.
"I named 'what is preventing Trump from being tired before the election'"?
Yes, Steve, you've got the two main actors, but you left out ALEC, the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation, the glacial slowness of Merrick Garland, U.S. Senate Republicans who (twice) voted against impeachment convictions, U.S. House Republicans who followed Speaker Howdy Doody in killing the bipartisan border bill, other high-ranking Republicans who trooped to the Manhattan trial decked out in clown show identical Trump costumes, the 1,400 indicted attackers of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, Fox News, and millions more in their regalia guffawing for the end of American democracy.
Or do you prefer causality simple, as if it behooves us to isolate but two bad actors?
Thank you for sharing your perspective. For the record, I’m not here to debate your perspective versus mine. You’re entitled to have yours and I’m entitled to have mine. That’s a wonderful thing about the America we currently live in. And I hope it continues to be true about the America of 2025 and beyond. Have a good night.
And brevity is still the soul of wit.
Yes. And, that incredibly long 'one or two seconds' of silence (by Biden) following some buffoonish utterance by #45 is an absolute killer. Silence, it's so loud! What a tool.
This Phil is the crux. 👏
TFG doesn’t even try period ..his whole approach is delay, diversion, and dumpster fires . “Going to be the best_ _ _ _ “ ; “ _ _ _ _ in two weeks you’re going to see”; “_ _ _ _trust me” . The repetition of staying the hype , double down delivery, and empty promises…OMG! Fill in the blanks folks is the grift , after grift after grift. But he appeals to the greed bunch, the anarchists, the wanna be dictators, and despots in power having used the same playbook after playbook of autocratic repressive regimes.
What amazed me really was how many he WOKE up which subsequently crawled out from under their racist rocks. Sadly depicting the ever present persistent problem politely protected since the civil war.
Heather has so eloquently pointed out (in Letters, her books, as well as the commentaries by you folks -other materials pertinent ) tactics repeated (not only in our short history) of ‘been there and done that’ tendency of mankind , the worst of which is divide and conquer and it’s obsequious success rates.
And yet..fall for it 70 million(?) DID! Along with country upon country of failed states, immigration rampant bursting the seams of neighboring innocents……ALL THE WHILE IGNORING the patience of PEACE , PERSEVERANCE, and and the poverty of the world reduced by 50% …the lessers of mankind lifted.
We’ve got to bring those responsible for crimes against humanity to accountability.
THIS is not rocket science.
💙💙VOTE ALL THE COMPLICIT OUT💙💙
Patricia: I am awed by Rachel Maddow's podcast, Ultra, where she is talking about similar fascist movements in the US and Europe BEFORE, as in 1944. The pendulum swings to embolden those you mention, and human nature of those who are damaged and insecure to seek a so-called "strong man." Of course, tfg's strength is totally fake but said people naively buy into the braggadocio. It is up to us and all other decent people now...
Agreed, great points. I loved Maddox’s Ultra -if you haven’t heard it I recommend -was a huge history lesson, well done, as has been LFAA.
Never has a Felon run for President …but established law they can’t vote..what such grande lessons- how loose the loopholes NOW appear… question all the standard principles all the way back as to what people thought 100+ years ago .
Well ….it’s time to define ourselves again..what we stand for..accountability ,equality, freedom, peace, principles, trust by truth.
Biden’s an excellent mentor , done an amazing job, mending, uniting, strengthening….and all the while a CLASS ACT!
💙💙VOTE ALL THE COMPLICIT OUT💙💙
Yes, Patricia, "fall for it 70 million(?) DID!"
That's why I probed Steve for his comment reducing the problem to two main actors.
The whole Repub party
The KGB is now the FSB, but yeah.
Biden should ask Trump to define a republic.
https://danielsolomon.substack.com/p/dos-caudillos
JL-good approach! A few other definitions he could be asked about: freedom, civil rights, democracy, equality…
Seems like propaganda breaks down if you start to pin it down.
Good catch "JL"... still at Lubyanka downtown, though.
Why are you still lying about Trump and Putin? I guess the news that the Clinton camp cooked up the whole Trump Putin connection to take heat off of her for the email scandal.
Don't believe me? You might asked James Brennan, Obama's CIA director. He briefed Biden and Obama about the Clinton plot in the summer of 2016.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dni-releases-cia-documents-hillary-204337457.html
Maybe Biden can find another Judge who is a Biden donor, and whose daughter works for the DNC to try Trump in a district that voted for Biden 90-10.
Steve, I hate to remind you that there is NOTHING that would shake tRumps supporters. Anyone on the fence for this election has been brainwashed into seeing Biden as an old, doddering, demented man who they can't see "have a beer with". If policies, facts, and accomplishments mattered this election would not be close.
yes Steve
It is frightening that there is even a question about the outcome of this election.
If the swing states can prevent the MAGA from cheating we should be OK.
But that is not a certainty. Every democrat must vote. And we must get the apathetic voters to the polls to vote blue.
This country deserves better but this is the situation and we must rise to the occasion.
#VoteBlueToSaveAmerica
But before we get every democrat and apathetic voters to vote, if I may suggest, it is essential that we all help hundreds of thousands of college students in 11 critically important senate election states, and in 38 "truly competitive" Congressional Districts (CDs), to register and then turn out! Carefully resourcing our contributions to those candidates who sre really "on the margin" is also essential. Please go to www.TurnUp.US which is run by brilliant Harvard students who are focused ONLY on the "truly competitive" races in order to support abortion rights, gun safety, and to fight climate change! Your donations are tax deductible as this is a Charitable C3 and please contribute generously! Thank you; TurnUp is the very best voter registration and turnout organization in the country!
On Saturday in Northeast Harbor, ME close to Leonard Leo's ill begotten homes, there was a meeting to discuss Project 2025. I attended the meeting with around 100 other people.
Project 2025 was 3 years in the making financed by the Koch Bros. Foundation for $22+ million. It is an 857 page document that can be downloaded and searched. The document is a collaborative effort of fifty plus far right groups including the white Christian Nationalists. The speaker was pretty knowledgeable but it is impossible for one person to absorb the nuances of the plan. Plus, there are many cracks that may have intentionally been left blank. For instance, the section on reforming the Department of Justice to prevent raids like the Mar-a-Lago documents raid, somehow fails to talk about victims or their rights. With over 66000 rapes that have resulted in pregnancies in the last 2 years in the states that have outlawed abortion, not a word about prosecuting the rapists or the sexual predators. It does speak to violent crime briefly, but a large percentage of MAGAs don't believe rape and incest should be prosecuted.
As I stood up to leave the gentleman next to me said, "We are so fucked." I couldn't argue with him.
If CFDT is elected, within 180 days you will not recognize a single Federal agency and the EPA will be dismantled.
Your prediction is spot on
Yes-they have not just a vision for America but detailed plans to implement it. We’ll show them though that all the money in the world won’t buy them a fascist nation.
FT6 has a weekly Florida phone banking program Thursdays from 2-4 Below is the link.
40,000 phone numbers and they need volunteers. .
https://www.mobilize.us/ft6/event/632594/
Thanks for the heads up on turnup.usa. I hope they'll succeed. Here in TX, I listen to young MAGA followers spout their nonsense, but I relax because most of them have never voted.
Thank you!
I’m beginning to feel real fear and anxiety about how the results of this election - the idea that there is a hard plan to overturn the results; and I feel a sense of hope that we are so close to ridding ourselves of this pest once and for all. My greatest hope is that Dems win more down-ballot races because of record turnout in states w women’s healthcare on ballot initiatives.
Evangelical Christians "supposedly" do not allow pre-marital sex. Contraceptives are key to preventing the necessity of abortions.
I doubt that any of the younger generations can imagine how secretive sexual activity was during the baby boomer years. I can't imagine they are going to go back to waiting until marriage. To all the young people upset about Gaza and desire to somehow "punish" Biden by not voting, or voting for Trump, I like to refer to Project 2025 plan to ban contraceptives.
Wish we could poll all those White Evangelicals holding positions of power about whether they used birth control. Maybe we could Google all of them in House and Senate as to how many children each has. Sounds petty but I do not believe they have practiced what they preach.
A hard plan to overturn the results - and in plain sight
I attended an excellent presentation on Project 2025. (ThankYou, Jennifer Flynn Walker, Center for Popular Democracy.) Later, a young activist asserted that 'Democrats are worse than Republicans because Republicans are evil so you cannot expect any better from them, but Democrats have not stopped them.' As an example he said 'Democrats are responsible for the Dobbs decision because they did not pass a Federal law protecting abortion.' An older activist with the Poor Peoples Campaign asserted that 'it doesn't matter who people vote for as long as they vote and it is wrong to be dismissive of the younger person's position because he represents an important demographic.' Neither of these people is ignorant nor apathetic. Yet both are irrational and counterproductive regarding voting in 2024. This example is anecdotal. It conclusively represents only the opinions of these two people. But ...
I vote for likely outcomes over voting for the person. We as individuals and as a people will be living with the consequences of who we pick as our agents long after said person has faded from the spotlight. Not that who that person is is not of importance, but the integrity of the republic is even more so. It would seem that even some Republican-leaning business sorts have been getting that message. Voting for Trump is like hitching a ride with a suicide bomber.
"I vote for likely outcomes over voting for the person."
ThankYou JL Graham.
Exactly.
The messages to 'vote person not party' and 'vote your conscience' are essentially a form of voter suppression equivalent to 'your vote doesn't count.' They put voting as an individual exercise in personal expression above voting as a shared strategy to take power. They turn voting and ethics on their head to drain them of making common cause for the greater good.
Yes!, "voting as a shared strategy to take power" It does come down to that and those words are useful in conversations with people who want neither candidate.
Great way of putting it-personal expression over shared power and greater good.
When they vote for the Rs they are expressing desires for mean, violent, selfish criminals and bullies who lie, cheat and steal to lead us.
Who are these 70 million??!!
If we are to take "government of the people, by the people, for the people" seriously, the buck ultimately stops with us. We in aggregate are made responsible for the quality and direction of our government, or else the formula breaks down. Forging solidarity while maintain diversity is a slog; but it's doable. The intervention of ginormous sums of money and unaccountable power short-circuits the reconciliatory process, a huge ugly thumb on a scale. Reagan slick-talked the nation into endorsing that short-cut approach, but who gained and who lost along that path? The data is still out there.
We drove by my wife's old house yesterday for the first time in many years. The neighborhood has been noticeably gentrified, but has a far less friendly look. "Sterile" in my wife's words; and remodeled to a uniform, uninteresting style. Elsewhere whole neighborhoods have been bulldozed and replaced by boxy, warehouse like apartments that cost a small fortune to live in. The comforts are all interior. The community can go to hell. It's looks line narcissism writ large, and that's what unalloyed commercialism will do for you.
Or marrying one.
This apathy towards our politics is exactly what R’s want. All the nonsensical arguments, demagoguery, lies, and obstruction ( failure to debate, failure to bring policy) is a strategy to demoralize, confuse, and exit participation. It’s a form of voter suppression. It’s the tradition in Russia. It is heartbreaking to see how it has manifested in here America where 1/2 the population does not vote.
I have long advocated for mandatory voting. It is the case in Australia. The penalty is only $25 - but it makes a point. And it works.
"Australia has one of the highest voter turnouts in the world. Since voting became compulsory in 1924, over 90 percent of those registered have voted in every federal election. Compulsory voting means every eligible Australian citizen (18 years or older) is required by law to enrol and vote."
https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/your-questions-on-notice/questions/how-many-people-voted-in-the-last-election
What day of the week does Australia vote? Election Day should be a national holiday ( Friday or Monday…no work!) or at the least on a Saturday. Tuesday is a form of voter suppression to working class families. We should change this. When more people vote, Dems win almost everytime. Why Dems haven’t done this in the wake of losing the Suprene Court, losing the Voting Rights Act, continuing gerrymandering, election denial, abusing the courts and laws to delay winners/losers… and on and on.
Time to change the organizational structure. Get tougher, get smarter, out think the converted forces of the radical GOP Libertarian billionaires!
In Australia, election day is always held on Saturday, voters can go to any polling booth in their home state.
Just like in France as well as other western democracies! Good on ya mate! Sometimes I think George C Marshall did a better job rebuilding Europe from the ashes, than we did just maintaining our own democracy.
No one wants to be bossed, certainly including me, but life withing a society incurs certain duties. I want to maximize responsible (recognition of duty) choices and maintain maximal privacy for that which is justly private. To the degree what we do or don't do impacts others, responsibilities begin. I think there are pros and cons to the Australian model, and my impression is that it has not cured poor choices, but government of the people, by the people, for the people is surely weakened by too many abstentions, and where voting is made easily accessible, it seem like not too much to ask.
An yeah, a holiday and a lot more discussion of choice and outcomes and the dangers of consolidated power; not so much of the goddam horse race.
A very longstanding heartbreak, ted, apathy versus vitriolic engagement. Im suspecting this round will pull out 60% or better
The big lie that government is the enemy and resistance is futile are strategies for making it true. To the degree we obtain and maintain awareness and agency, life (at least in part) is what you make it. According to Frankel, even, to the degree it was possible, imprisoned in German death camps.
Lin, I have heard several young people, both Italian and from the USA, making similar arguments, and they remind me of the "good" old days of the Vietnam War when it was common to hear such expressions as "bring on the revolution" and "Let's tear the MF down and start over!"etc. The difference now is that similar sentiments are expressed by elected representatives and billionaires and the GOP candidate, all relying on BIG LIE(s) to convnce people that the USA is a hellscape and that Democrats are demonic and other foolishness belied by every reliable information source. So something has really gone off the rails in the way people see the world and then choose to believe what they see or not.
The things that have caused people to believe almost anything so long as it is not verifyably true, surely include the objective failure of all our leaders (Dem and GOP) since LBJ to effectively address the great existential dangers (nuclear war, ever worsening economic inequality and climate change -- in no particular order) when there was still time to disarm, spread the wealth and switch to solar energy before such major undertakings became almost too enormous to contemplate (as they are now).
While all recent GOP presidents have been disastrous choices to a greater or lesser degree, the Democrats Carter, Clinton and Obama can be given credit for having their hearts in the right place most of the time and (probably) actually knowing what needed to be done, even if their political support (as in voters) was never sufficient to reach a tipping point, the moment when once-controversial beliefs become generally accepted. Witness Roe v. Wade described -- until quite recently -- as "settled law" even by right wing SCOTUS selectees.
This general lack of credibility attributed to all politicians by such a large part of the potential US electorate has no doubt been exacerbated by the astounding changes in information technology coupled with Americans' sense of superiority with respect to the rest of the world, informed by a general ignorance both of history and what the world out there is really like. This detachment from any reality but our own renders many of us incapable of distinguishing fact from fiction.
So Trump describes a non-existent "American Carnage" about which -- if it did exist -- he would not care at all due to his manifest Narcissism, but his followers cheer him on rather than laughing him off the stage.
Conclusion? No one knows who will win the next election, nor do we know what sort of weird shit may go down between now and November or whether there will still be any of us left alive, except perhaps in deep caves (Dr. Strangelove's dream). But there is at least an even chance that there will be a blue wave. I believe that irrationally, but I do believe it, being of our times, so to speak.
The pandemic was a form of carnage. Look how trump and his administration handled that. Thousands of people died needlessly because of the greed and malevolence of and trump wannabe, Jared Kushner.
Many years ago, I read that voting for a Republican candidate for president was tantamount to voting for a recession. Recessions hurt ordinary people, not the morbidly rich. Their wealth cushions them. Plus the wealthy benefit from recessions.
Trump is not an actual businessman; he just played one on "The Apprentice."
Of the 1.3 million deaths, Almost 4,000 doctors and nurses died from work exposure before they could get vaccinated. Thats almost twice 911. Look at the differences in the responses. Let that settle in folks.
The big problem with "Let's tear the MF down and start over!"etc. is that we (and history) exist in long process of advancing space-time where what is built rests upon what came before, even the American Revolution.
That said, nothing prevents substantially rethinking how we do things, and reevaluating how well our current choices are actually working. I believe a lot more of that is advisable these days. The thing is we all get a share of leadership, and our salient leaders "grass roots" or elected serve democracy when they present a focus that we can aggregate around or reject. Successful social movements direct our attention to something that matters, and that needs a strategy, persistence, and discipline. Poorly focused tantrums just serve the interests of tyrants.
I have not relocated the quote, but AOC recently said that while she has disagreements with Biden he has her vote. I'm majorly paraphrasing here, but it is better to live to fight another day than let ruination ensue.
And if you can't achieve perfect, then settle for better-than-nothing and keep up the good fight. Two forward and one back, and then we die anyway.
Similar to current Russians cheerleading a 2nd Trump administration. “He’s the American equivalent of Gorbevchev, the guy who will crash the whole system.” This is not the equivalent of reform. It’s some bat shit crazy threat to our national security, economy, and democracy. How R voters don’t see it is really something extraordinary. But 1920-1938 Germany gives us clues, and how to guard against it.
Good morning Lin- Was it the one in Northeast Harbor? Thank you for posting her name and organization. I didn't catch her name or information.
I would just add, that Ms. Walker said that she would be happy to moderate any meeting on Project 2025 for 15 or more people. She is out of NYC and traveled to ME, so don't count her out if you think you are too remote for her to come.
Yes.
ThankYou NEHarbor Library!
Ms. Walker also mentioned Stop the Coup 2025. Focused on Project 2025.
https://www.stopthecoup2025.org/
"A public education and mobilization campaign to counter Project 2025, the conservative movement’s blueprint attack on our democracy. January 6 was just their rehearsal."
Fist bump, Bambi sprint Josh Hawley is the poster boy for GOP insurrection - by procedural *and * physical violence.
Thanks for that too Lin. I only remembered the word COUP.
But they are to be feared and rebutted because they are WRONG
Your second sentence is the kicker
Wow, wow, wow, another night Professor, with facts that hit it right out of the ballpark! No matter how divided our country appears, no matter how ridiculous some may sound, I truly must believe our Republic will stand and yes, FACTS MATTER!
You are so appreciated! YOU will be in our history books, our history in YOUR books, when we are long gone. America stands tall! TY!
I agree wholeheartedly…. What is so impressive about her articles is the documentation … I can’t imagine the time that must take.
Good historians do research and keep records. Think how much easier it will be for HCR or others to write books with access to all this background.
Exactly why she is doing it. Love it!
I wouldn’t have the slightest clue how to organize all of this.
Sharon, While I, too, so admire Heather’s methodical documentation both of the facts and the deceptions perpetrated by MAGA on the public, I also recognize to affect change Democratic leadership now must package this record and make it readily accessible, especially for those who doubt that Democrats are committed jointly to tackling legitimate issues and grievances.
Tens of millions who voted Trump in 2020 doubt that Dem commitment, Barbara Jo.
Look at the scores of comments in response to Steve Brant's originating comment here focusing on simplifying the problem.
How many showed their human dimension by reference to any of our humanities?
Zero.
A few showed human dimension by personal anecdote. Yes. Good for them. But American schools long ago fell to the post-1971-far-right-foundation Powell memo attack. First casualty of this sustained attack killed humanities in U.S. schools: K-12 and "higher." Dems effectively surrendered that human resource: our humanities.
One of the many things that stood out to me in today's newsletter is: "Such positions have more in common with the far left than the traditional Republican economic policies."
I propose a change from the traditional political spectrum implying a horizontal left-right indicator. It should be more like a one-handed clock. Label the upper left-hand quadrant "progressive" (aka more open minded and less skeptical), then label the upper right-hand quadrant "conservative" (aka more skeptical and less open minded), and label the bottom half "the dark side" (aka naive and cynical).
MAGA Republicans got to the dark side by going too far to the right. Too far to the right or too far to the left is interesting from a historical perspective, but the effect is the same.
My point? Lets stop calling MAGA Republicans conservatives, ultra or otherwise. Instead, lets tell it like it is, which is that they've gone to the dark side.
Wisdom is the willingness to constrain one's own ignorance (aka a conservative is at least a little bit open minded, and a progressive is at least a little bit skeptical). Wisdom's small short-term investment has is an enormous positive long-term return.
On the dark side, ignorance is unconstrained (because naivety and cynicism are two sides of the same coin), which has a small short-term advantage and an enormous negative long-term cost. And November 5 is in the long term.
"We’ve braved the belly of the beast; we’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace." —Amanda Gorman.
Facts are drawn from reality. Get to know reality well, and reality tends to be an ally. Ignore or distort reality and you make her a potentially fearsome enemy, as the earth is current warning.
". . . a potentially fearsome enemy, as the earth is current warning."
Yes, J L, and also as the tens of millions yet guffaw, cheer, donate to the orange demagogue.
The title "Homo sapiens" is aspirational.
While I suppose that without a reversal of Citizens United the legitimacy of huge financial donations to superpacs like the $50 million contribution made by Tim Mellon will continue unabated, the ability to make such large financial gifts to political campaigns reeks of oligarchy. It seems to be one of the root causes of much that is wrong with politics in America.
If you haven't seen Navalny's documentary, Putin's Palace ((https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_tFSWZXKN0) about the Russian oligarchs, it is worth the almost two hours of your time. The details may be confusing, but the totality of the corruption is mind-boggling. We don't want it to happen here.
Absolutely. $$$ is the one ring to rule them all, unless we fight it.
Foreigner here: why is all this donated money so important? Why does it matter that the better candidate now has less Super PAC (whatever that means) than the abhorrent one?
In the US, over 90% of elections are won by who spends the most money. Money is speech. Corporations are people. We know how dumb and dangerous it is, yet we have been unable to fix it.
The short answer is that it takes money to effectively spread a message using advertising and voter engagement. The candidate who has the most money on their side will be able to influence more people. PAC (Political Action Committee) money is unlimited and more anonymous and therefore can reach more people with less scrutiny.
Stephen Colbert created a PAC in the run up to the 2012 election. You can find out more here. https://www.google.com/search?q=colbert+pac&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:154492ef,vid:ijxvjL7KJlk,st:0
Thanks. OK, I get the principle, but to my mind it just encourages corruption. More money doesn't mean better candidate, but MAGAts perceive the richer one to be better.
So none of the Fortune 500 are backing Trump with $$? That is telling in my mind
While there are probably more reasons, funds for advertising campaigns tend to be an important factor.
So if they're richer, they're better? Bigger bucks, bigger lies?
Not necessarily, but it usually helps to have an advantage in terms of a budget.
Studies have proven it, over and over. WHO outspends wins. Can’t deny that in over 90% of elections since about 1980.
Thank you for bringing this up. It sounds accurate, though I wish it were not. However, now is the time to "play hardball" to secure every possible advantage.
Money buys ads and pays staffers. However, the bulk that Trump pulled in was from three people: one who donated $50M, and two that donated $5M each. (The latter is a couple who each donated that. They are ultraconservative Christians.)
Ultraconservative Christians! Contradiction in terms?
Don't they all wanna throw the moneychangers outta the...ah, never mind...
Why don’t we call them “radical” theocrats? Evangelical sounds to close to Angelica. Or at least “fundamentalists”?
Having an enormous amount of money Anne-Louise, acts as an amplifier while making your points, you can use it for staffing and offices giving you a physical presence with a lot of people, that and it gives you the ability to flood the airwaves and the MSM with your message. Advertising has developed a very sophisticated ability to target almost anybody, that data is for sale, it’s granular, the orange turd used data from cell phones that were carried into his rallies, it told them who you were, where you worked, shopped, worshipped etc. Then came the targeted ads, he had a guy that developed that system for FB, if my memory is correct.
(But I don't like..) Thanks. I'm awfully glad I don't live there. Interesting, the use of personal data from cellphones. Part of his shtick is prowling back and forth, then suddenly pointing as if he's seen someone he knows. And clapping all the time.
The accusation of drug use is classic projection by Biden's critics: every accusation is an admission.
Wonder which drugs Ronnie Jackson has supplied Trump? Adderall ? Maybe more! I’ve read that Jackson has a problem with alcohol! Trump’s campaign consists of a pack of lies!
Anthony, a couple of years back I stumbled upon an interview with Noel Casler who worked a number of seasons on Celebrity Apprentice—he states, yes, TFFFG used Adderall as well as other substances. You can read the interview here & then probably need to mentally take a shower to remove the ick-factor: https://www.noelcasler.com/news/full-disclosure-an-interview-with-noel-casler. When I originally read this Greg Olear interview w/ him it wasn’t in this specific format (yellow type on a black background, posted on Casler’s site)…somewhat bothersome to my old eyes! EDIT: Here is a link to Greg Olear’s site (the original I’d read back when)—it’s easier on the eyes IMHO: https://gregolear.substack.com/p/full-disclosure-an-interview-with
Thanks! The Trump crowd is the most crude and disingenuous I’ve ever seen! No limit to what they’ll do or say!
The inside information in the Casler interview is unbelievable! Thanks for the link!
TFG’s an Adderall addict.
Standard smear from the Gop...
A quick Google search shows the Moody Analytics report created all but a ripple of news. Not surprising. Too bad the firm’s analysis didn’t include threats by Trump and his henchmen in Congress: scrap Social Security and the Affordable Care Act.
The MAGAs are so clueless to the fact that Trump would take away their retirement and healthcare.
There's no point in talking to them. Even if they were eating Trump sand every night, it would be the Best, Most Delicious Sand they ever ate. Hail to Trump sand says the MAGA!
MAGA cult members are delusional, Sharon. They’ve had too much Kook-Aid! Not much chance in changing their minds either! So frustrating to hear and read their garbage! In Georgia we have MTG, the most delusional of all and an embarrassment to the state!
And remarkably unbeautiful.
And that’s BELOW the skin…..just sayin’….
I’ve said before, Cro-Magnon!
Very good comment, Mr. Anthony W. The entire MAGA cult is frustrating to me. I can't even stand to read or listen to their garbage without losing my temper.
Maggot Traitor Greene is a delusional, loud mouthed, arrogant creep. She is the worst person that has ever been a Congressperson. I wonder if she even graduated from Kindergarten? She is not only an embarrassment to our state, but she is by far the dumbest person ever to be a Congressperson!
Listening to her reminds me of listening to interviews from “ professional” wrestling - All BS with no substance! Apparently, her constituents are addicted to her lies and misinformation!
I totally agree! Her and DJT are very much the same. Her and DJT's constituents are addicted to their lies and blatant disinformation. It seems to me they are delusional, and like children that never grew up. They make up delusional conspiracy theories that are so outrageous only their fellow cult members believe them. Examples: Jewish Space Lasers that caused forest fires in California and that all Democrats are pedophiles? Deep State? These people are in serious need of mental health professionals!
And, another Trumper (Jack) won the Republican primary for Congress over Dugan. He got 63% of the district vote. I’m voting for Maura Keller (D) in November! Likely he’ll win and be the Congressman!
I totally agree, Sharon. Even if they were eating TUMP excrement every night. They are so obsessed and deluded, they would gladly eat it and say that disgusting act would be the best food they had ever eaten. There is no point even trying to talk to them. I am appalled at the sheer number of people here in the USA that have totally lost their minds!
It gets complicated, John.
U.S. billionaire predators offshored millions of decent, working-class jobs from the late 1970s on (prompted by the Powell memo of 1971).
Those who got abandoned like this felt that coastal elites had no idea of their suffering (including serious obesity, plus Fentanyl and OxyContin addictions). They knew that no schools in the U.S. produced anyone (outside of late night comics) with any awareness anymore of any humanities that had stayed in touch with the people.
The schools were all stuck into addictions to standardized testing only -- no humanities anymore, only numbers, numbers, units, linear thinking, categorical grouping, nothing human anymore about anything.
Thus so many "deplorables" hated coastal types like banker-friendly, stat-full Hillary, instead embraced the orange demagogue (after Bernie, too, had to bow to Hillary).
Trump supporters represent all economic classes. The thing they have most in common is a desire to maintain white supremacy. This is what Trump has really promised them all.
You are so right, Phil. It is complicated!
And what's the opposite of complicated, John?
Group think. Conformity. Dictators who want obedient, quiet populations. Clerics who want to control women. Who want gays to go away and for "traditional family life" to reign by slogans and police state fiat.
What's most complicated? The human. Thus humanities need to disappear from schools, replaced by standardized testers for all the numbers, units, linear thinking, abc causality, and categorical packaging abstracted simpletons crave.
I couldn't agree more, Phil. Over the past 5 years i have watched about every documentary about the one and only Adolf Hitler. The similarities are evident to TUMP and their insane Project 2025 disaster, but not exact.
Michael, the last sentence in your comment reminded me of what a member on the Daily KOS site said about 3 years ago, he said he had a friend that was a huge MAGAT person that was receiving Social Security and one day he asked his friend what would he do if TUMP took his Social Security away and he couldn't pay his mortgage? His friend replied, '' i wouldn't care, i would just move into a homeless shelter.'' That is just one example of just how the tiny brain of a MAGAT works. Bad things are OK with them if TUMP does horrible things even to them. Their obsession with that sub-human cretin is beyond belief!
Really unbelievable people! Absent any visible signs of honesty & integrity either!!
And just who or what would fund that homeless shelter? Sheesh.
The Moody Analytics report should be in the headlines, in the business/economic news at the very least. As someone on the cusp of retirement, I am extremely concerned (as if I wasn't worried enough already!).
What a comprehensive letter citing all the progress being made for the betterment of our country under the Biden-Harris Administration. It makes no sense to me that news sources throughout the country are not reporting these facts. I’d like to share this letter with the members of my family who do not support President Biden and have twice voted for Trump. They wouldn’t believe it even if they read it. Herein lies the problem.
Marcia, I’ve signed up for a free (unfortunately I can only afford one SubStack paid subscription & that HCR’s) StubStack: “What Did Joe Biden Do Today?” It covers stuff that might not make it on the news. Check it out, this is today’s missive: https://whatdidbidendotoday.substack.com/p/what-did-joe-biden-do-today-0b6?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=954002&post_id=145934587&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6wq7j&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Puts me in mind of something the late Queen Elizabeth II is reported to have said about the Royal Family's constant public appearances: "If they don't see us, they don't believe us."
So much to respond to in this update...but my most fun thought as I read through tonight's letter is how fun it would be to build a large group of attendees that outnumber the usual audience (not so hard these days, actually) at the tRumpf rallies...this group can just keep chanting "that's not true" over and over and they would be there in numbers that dwarf the MAGAts so they would not be able to be ejected.
Better yet, chant “Lock HIM Up!”
or both! "Lock HIM up...for his LIES"
That was my impression on reading HCR's letter: He's just making stuff up! And the most outlandish the better. Newest thing: have "illegal immigrants" fight each other to become citizens!
I like it! Probably simpler and better than an idea I've had flitting around, that President Biden spice up his debate with some really outrageous Trump-style lies. ("Oh! did I say that? I must be starting to get old!")
The beauty of your idea is that President Biden would not even have to lie, simply repeating the things DT and other MAGAs have said would be more than enough. I also like the idea of chanting LOCK HIM UP! at MAGA rallies and during the debate:)
BUT, having President Biden repeat T' lies, wouldn't it give the MAGA's opportunity to say "but , see, President Biden said it too", without mention that the President qualified the statement as a lie?
🤣
Thank you for this bracing inventory, Heather. It speaks volumes that a descendant of Andrew Mellon, who had his own problems with FDR, sees fit to support the current iteration of populist idiocy that passes for a platform in the GOP. If there is one thing that money can’t buy it is that most uncommon of traits: common sense.
Thank you Professor Richardson.
Timothy Mellon (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9eed9g3vlyo),
Barre Seid (https://www.propublica.org/article/barre-seid-heartland-institute-hillsdale-college-gmu),
Robert Mercer (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/robert-mercer-breitbart-war-on-media-steve-bannon-donald-trump-nigel-farage),
Elon Musk (https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2022/11/27/elon-musks-political-shift-how-the-billionaire-moved-from-backing-obama-to-endorsing-desantis/) and,
Peter Thiel (https://www.vox.com/recode/22332045/peter-thiel-jd-vance-ohio-senate-donation)
are all textbook examples as to why any attempt at a meaningful form of democracy cannot co-exist with extreme wealth concentration, more so after the Supremely Corrupt Court of the United States elevated political donations to protected speech.
Excellent call, George!
Ole' Louis Brandeis would be proud!
So would Dwight Eisenhower.
True that
Well said, sir.
Thank you
The decrease in crime cited in HCR’s letter has more than a casual relationship to the increase in employment.
This Letter is a good 'un; thank you, Professor!
And, since name-calling is a thing:
Jamie Raskin, having been accused of being a “damned liberal,” responds: “You’re damned right I’m a liberal; the heart of the word is liberty. And I’m a progressive because the heart of that word is progress. But my favorite thing to call myself these days is a conservative, because I want to conserve the land, the air, the water, the climate system, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
So, there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoOx-nZlrqY
Said at Minute 22:02
Jamie Raskin is a brilliant, decent and kind mensch. When my day takes a turn JR is one of the pillars of strength I think of. I am so grateful JR is recovering from his bout with cancer.
I'm grateful, too, Marj, that he is recovering.
👍
Lynell, this is fabulous. Thanks for the link!
Glad you saw it, Ally!
There is barely a factoid on any topic, whether it be economic, political, environmental or otherwise, on which t has the barest minimum competence to opine. The staggering millions of Americans who continue to adhere to a functionally moronic, detestable, corrupt, unconscionable liar is stunning. Clearly his minions will spin a wild fantasy in praise of his debate performance (which, BTW, I still have doubts will occur), but any sane observer must see President Biden as having taken up a hugely damaged nation and righted the ship.
But - are the staggering millions still basically the same that have been around for the last three years? They are far fewer than the real American voters.
For the moment.
Mark Zandi, head of Moody’s Analytics [eons ago, I was Moody’s executive vice president], has provided, in retrospect, the most professional, detailed ongoing analysis of the American economy during the post-Covid period. For me, his track record is on a par with that of Paul Krugman.
Trump has been spouting off-the-cuff policy statements that are so ridiculous that they could be a comedian’s spiel at Las Vegas. His suggestion that the income tax might be replaced by revenue from higher tariffs shatters the laugh meter, until analysis points out that this would cost the average family another $5,000 annually, while providing an almost free ride for the wealthy.
Seldom does anyone authoritative seek to cost out Trump’s shot gun utterances. Zandi has done this:
UNDER BIDEN, FROM 2025 AND BEYOND, INFLATION WILL DIMINISH AND THE AMERICAN ECONOMY WILL GROW SIGNIFICANTLY. UNDER TRUMP’S PROPOSALS, INFLATION WILL BE AN ONGOING PROBLEM AND THE ECONOMY WILL STRUGGLE.
I look forward to Biden, on June 27th, calmly puncturing Trump’s false-fact bloviations. Like a carnival barker, Trump throws out fearful bull shit to his circus cult. Cool Hand Joe, with the impressive accomplishments of the Biden administration, will give Trump a lesson on what it takes to be a president dedicated to serving the United States of America.
Mar a Lago isn’t the White House—-far, far from it.
Sorry - not sorry - Keith, to slip in on your post with this revelatory admonition from Professor Harold Hill...We Got Trouble Right Here in River City...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_Oe-jtgdI
Lynell AND Harold Hill was a charlatan (charming rather than our current cult charlatan) who was spreading ‘fear’ about trouble in River City to sell uniforms and music instruments to young kids. Seventy-Six trombones was a marvelous finale of this farce, quite distinct from the January 6th insurrection.
I got to be one of the 76 trombones (actually we were about 20) when we presented "Music Man" my sophomore year. I also have two friends who own and play the coveted (!) double bell euphonium.
Thought you might appreciate this exchange, Ally. Thanks for the music lesson on the double bell euphonium!
Too true, Keith.
Evening, Lynell!! (fought off a migraine today, and I'm here at 5:30 pm instead of am, PDT.
Ooh, Hope you are feeling better now. See you later?
Oh, yeah. The magic pill did its trick! Back and better than ever!
Yay!
That fake Spanish architecture, fake antiquities, fake hospitality.
Anne Fake hair, Orange-Tinted Orangutan.
What a description - that woman deserves a Freedom Medal - imagine finding one of those sitting on the bed in his underwear. A man of true fake/faith/er, face, fake face. Well, you name it: it's fake.
Anne Fake Flatulent Fornicaker
As usual, you give me a chuckle on a morning when I tried to compare the environmental interrupters of the big golf tournament yesterday to a sports fan who doesn’t get it about poison on greens and the watering thereof. Hung up on bread and circuses, I am plunged into environmental considerations, cheering on the Canadian Canucks (ice hockey belongs to them, not Florida, where it is equally exploitive of resources) for the Stanley Cup for purely environmental and historical reasons.
Then there’s money, the exposed elephant in the room. No one is talking about how much climate change is costing while PROPOSING SOLUTIONS, though I did actually see an add for TRAINS, run efficiently by electricity and trained (union?) workmen.
Thank you, Keith.
For the record, Tim Mellon is Biden's age. More importantly, like The Convicted Felon, he is a poster child of A. J. Carothers quote that "He made his money the really old-fashioned way. He inherited it”. Mellon had the wisdom to be born as an heir of Andrew Mellon who was himself an heir to the multi-generational, dynastic banking fortune of Thomas Mellon. Mellon and TFC also epitomize the Barry Switzer quote "Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple."
Awesome analogy!
I wish there were a way to get some of Professor Richardson’s letters, particularly this one, to every household in America.